About Us
Our Practice
Mama Moore Regeneration Center is a holistic wellness center dedicated to cultivating sustainable local food systems by practicing traditional ecological knowledge. Utilizing African-centered methodologies of Sankofa and Ujima, we take on the collective responsibilty of {re}membering and honoring our past as we work together to grow the future.
Mama Moore is more than a garden, it is fertile soil nurtured to sprout community {r}evolution and food agency. As we grow, learn, play, work, and thrive, we uplift and restore the human spirit-- from the individual to the collective and for generations to come!
Our Values
Sankofa
Sankofa is an Akan Twi proverb that means “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.” Sankofa is a principle of regeneration which inspires radical neighborhood transformation by honoring the power of traditional wisdom to grasp at the roots of injustice.
Our Roots
Mama Moore {Re}Generation Center traces its roots back to the mid-1950’s on the same plot of land where it now grows. In the midst of significant racial transition from European immigrants to middle class Black Americans in the Chatham neighborhood, Doris Moore— who would later be affectionately known as “Mama Moore”, moved onto the block. Mama Moore was a well-educated, diligent, and wise woman who upheld her community as a matriarch. For many years, she nurtured the lives of those around her— helping to raise up generations who knew their neighbors, took collective responsibility for the care of their community, and honored each other. However, in the 1980s and 90s the state-sanctioned conditions of death and deprivation that have long waged war against Black communities spread blight through the Chatham community through the infiltration drugs, state violence, incarceration. Our founder, Mama Patrice Patterson was a resilient daughter of these difficult times. She recognized the beauty of her community despite the pain that had been inflicted upon it, so she started to cultivate a vision. She imagined 79th as space of regeneration and healing. Today, Mama Moore {Re}Generation Center is a manifestation of that dream.