275 Food Project – Memphis Flyer

If you want to take a trip around the world without leaving your dinner table, visit Savannah’s Food Co.

The current menu of the meal-delivery/catering company includes the Vietnamese-inspired North Memphis banh mi, Mumbai beans and rice, Welsh potato leek soup, Asian sesame noodles, Persian saffron and citron salmon, and Moroccan chicken.

“We represent 10 countries,” says chef/owner Zach Thomason. “We are the Olympics of food.”

He also serves fried chicken, which he describes as “your typical comfort fried chicken.” There’s also the Soul Food Catfish Special with roasted red bell pepper and goat cheese hush puppies.

“We try to develop a menu that brings in flavors from around the world,” Thomason says. “You begin to accept and gain an awareness of others through food by talking about the different flavors that each culture is bringing to a dish.”

Thomason, whose cooking experience includes jobs at Interim, Next Door Eatery, and The Gray Canary, describes Savannah’s Food Co. as “a gourmet meal-delivery and catering company using farm-fresh ingredients. I source either from the farmers markets or have some of the local farmers bring me their goods, and we go from there.”

People order 24 hours in advance for next-day delivery. “I do Memphis, Arlington, Collierville, Germantown, and Bartlett. All of the suburbs. We offer individual portions and family-size portions.” They also feature a kid’s menu.

As for desserts, Thomason says his fiancée, Gillian Lepisto, makes “some of the most astonishing desserts you can have. Delicious and homey. The point of food is to make you feel like someone cares about you.” They offer six desserts, including Lazy Lemon Cheesecake Bars. Prices for meals range from $12 to an $85 family-size.

Thomason, who is assisted by Lepisto, his brother Nick Myers, and Mason Whitman, is currently working out of Jimmy Gentry’s Paradox Catering. “Savannah” is Lepisto’s daughter Savannah Lepisto.

He would like to eventually open a brick-and-mortar business. “We definitely will have a deli counter. And the location will offer some lunch options with sandwiches and soups and to-go items. Take-and-bake things like we’re currently selling, but with more space. That opens up the possibility for countless things. We could begin hosting dinners and serving our meals hot, rather than have our customers heat them themselves.”

“There’s just more we can do with it,” he adds. “We’ll have the opportunity to talk about selling locally produced goods.”

Thomason’s main goal is to eventually be able to sell his locally sourced food to low-income families at a lower price. “I have a passion to get this food to people who need it and can use it.”

And, he says, “I truly believe when we eat closer to where we live, we are inevitably going to feel good.”

Thomason came up with the idea for his business during the pandemic. “I had been working with 275 Food Project and helping them deliver, at the time, emergency food CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] boxes. I started talking to one of the women who owns the place, Diane Terrell, and she was really helping me move my thoughts along with it.”

She told Thomason, “Think about something that you think would be impactful. Think about what you can do.”

Thomason believes he can teach people through his food. “It all starts with the fundamentals. Right now, the only thing I have to offer is food.”

“This is just dreaming,” he continues, “but in the future, I hope to have a 501c3 that helps feed and take care of people who cannot get this source of food. And also giving jobs to those who cannot get them. Whether they’re coming out of jail or rehab, homeless shelters. But none of that is possible until we can get the business up and rolling.”

To order from Savannah’s Food Co., go to savannahsfoodco.com.

“Every city that has a thriving local food economy has a team of people who are dedicated to getting food off the farm and into the city, where chefs, restaurateurs, retailers, and then, ultimately, consumers have access,” says 275 Food Project co-founder Diane Terrell.

The goal for 275 is to make Memphis one of these cities, for a more economically robust and healthier population.

Terrell, who worked with the Grizzlies Foundation, and Heather Jamerson, who was with Pyramid Peak Foundation, are the founders of the organization.

Their first order of business was providing a grant to New South Produce Cooperative, a Little Rock-based farmer-owned food hub, so that they can expand into Memphis. Jamerson envisions New South providing produce to restaurants and then expanding into institutions such as Shelby County Schools.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Yolanda Manning

“But in order for that to work, there has to be more food grown on farms,” she says. “We’re working to make sure people want to buy local food and that a sales team and logistics team is on the ground to move it.”

Terrell says, “Our mission is to help realize the economic, health, and social impact of local food on the community. I think there’s consensus around the nation, perhaps around the globe, that local food does have significant health impacts. And those health impacts, particularly for a community like ours, with its high rates of diabetes and heart disease, are important for the future of our community.”

Terrell stresses the economic impact of local food. “Local food is big business,” she says. “We currently spend about $3.2 billion on food a year, and only one percent of that spend stays local, so 98 percent of it goes to farmers, food producers in California, Mexico, all over the world. Our goal is to move that one percent spend to a 20 percent spend. The economic impact of that could be as high as one and a half billion dollars. That’s increased prosperity to farmers, more jobs, more opportunities for entrepreneurs.”

275 Food Project’s second move was to establish radical. radical. (yep, with lower case “r” and the period) is one of the new vendors in the recently relaunched food hall at 409 S. Main, now known as Puck Food Hall.

radical. serves salads with ingredients sourced from farmers within a 275-mile radius. When the weather cools, they may add soups to the menu.

Yolanda Manning is the general manager. She did something really radical. She moved from Nashville to Memphis, went vegan, and lost nearly 100 pounds. She then went on to found Arabas Sweet Spot, a vegan cookie and sweets company (currently available at radical. and Inspire Cafe).

It was that entrepreneurial spark that drew Manning, Terrell, and Jamerson together because one of the things that Terrell and Jamerson vowed to do was support black entrepreneurs such as Manning.

radical.’s current hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Right now, its menu features a salad called the Radical Difference, which is inspired by Bun Thit Nuong, with pork shoulder, green lettuce, and rice noodles. It’s punched up with fresh basil, pickled carrots, and peanuts. The Radical Revolution is kale massaged in a lemon/black pepper vinaigrette and tossed with a citrus-infused quinoa. Pistachios, cucumbers, and green onions add crunch. Chicken or tofu can also be added for protein.

The ingredients for all the salads are sourced from area farms like Delta Sol, Ly Vu, and Rose Creek.

As for the punctuation of radical., Terrell explains that it was the brainchild of a graphic designer, but it is one that singularly fits. “The idea of a salad stall that aspired to 80 percent local sourcing is radical, right?” she says. “It’s radical — period.”

Other plans in the works for 275 Food Project are a market at Harbor Landing, mentoring projects, and a container restaurant in Soulsville.

Terrell and Jamerson stress that such work within the local food system is vitally important. “If this gap isn’t closed,” Terrell says, “none of our other ambitions or aspirations for the city will be realized.”