Slow Food Tri-Cities (SFTC) is a locally governed, volunteer-led nonprofit serving Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. We're one of more than 200 chapters affiliated with Slow Food USA and part of a global movement active in over 160 countries — but our work is rooted here, in the specific soils, seeds, and food traditions of the Appalachian foodshed.

Slow Food is a philosophy and a movement born in opposition to fast food culture. We believe food should be good — flavorful and nourishing; clean — grown in ways that don't harm land, water, or people; and fair — accessible to everyone, with growers and workers treated with dignity. That's the whole framework. Everything else follows from it.

We're affiliated with Slow Food USA, but we're not a franchise. SFTC is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our decisions, programs, and priorities are made by the people who live and eat and grow food here. We answer to this community, not to a national office.

A portion of membership dues supports national Slow Food USA initiatives, but your donations, ticket sales, merchandise purchases, and peer-to-peer fundraising contributions stay local. They fund the work we do together in this place.

SFTC is in its founding year. Founding Members join at a formative moment — before programs are fully built, before the organization's shape is fixed. That means you have real influence over what this chapter becomes. Whether you're a farmer, a chef, a home cook, or someone who just cares about where food comes from, becoming a Founding Member is how you plant yourself in this work.

The Ark of Taste is a Slow Food initiative to identify, celebrate, and protect foods at risk of disappearing — heirloom varieties, heritage breeds, regional preparations that aren't commercially viable but carry enormous cultural and culinary value. SFTC is actively working to document and protect foods from the Appalachian foodshed. If you know of a food, seed, or tradition worth preserving, we want to hear about it.

The Snail of Approval is SFTC's recognition program for local food businesses — farms, restaurants, markets, producers — that are doing the work right: sourcing responsibly, treating workers fairly, and contributing to a healthier food system. We're currently developing this program and will announce participating businesses soon.

Everyone who eats. More specifically: farmers and seed-savers, home canners and creek-bottom gardeners, chefs and food entrepreneurs, educators, outdoor enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to understand and strengthen the food system they're part of. If you care about food — its flavor, its origins, its justice — there's a place for you here.

You can become a Founding Member, make a donation, attend our events, or reach out directly through our contact page. We're volunteer-led and always glad to put willing hands to work.

We serve the broader Tri-Cities area of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, including Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol, along with the surrounding rural communities that make up this foodshed.

Rooted is an interactive digital project documenting the farmers, food traditions, and food cultures of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. It maps local producers, farmers markets, heritage orchards, seed-keepers, and artisan food makers — with narrative profiles and oral history-based documentation woven in, so you're not just finding a farm, you're finding its story. The Atlas pays particular attention to communities whose contributions to Appalachian food culture have been most underdocumented: Black Appalachian farmers, Cherokee and Indigenous food tradition keepers, immigrant growers, and small rural producers of every background. SFTC members get full access to the Atlas as it grows.

We host hands-on cooking demonstrations and community gatherings at working farms in the region — built around the skills and traditions at the heart of the Appalachian foodshed. Think bread baking, food preservation, cooking with seasonal and heritage ingredients. Events are ticketed on a sliding scale, with subsidized access for food-insecure community members. Members receive discounted tickets and early registration access. Watch our newsletter for upcoming dates.

A $60 annual membership includes: early access and discounted tickets to SFTC events and workshops; the SFTC member newsletter; full access to Rooted: A Living Atlas of the Tri-Cities Foodshed; priority registration for on-farm cooking demonstrations; access to our members-only tool library borrowing equipment for gardening and food production; a members-only recipe archive; and discounted tickets to our annual member gatherings. Membership also means you're part of shaping this organization during its founding year and that's no a small thing.