The Chattanooga City Council convened on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at approximately 20:22 UTC (3:22 p.m. local) to address a range of legislative, planning, and public safety matters. The meeting included reports on emergency food assistance, proposed air pollution control fee increases, a comprehensive update from the Land Development Office (LDO), rezoning cases, and public testimony regarding federal immigration enforcement. Several items were approved, deferred, or scheduled for future discussion.
The meeting adjourned after council members acknowledged the public’s engagement.
Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the Chattanooga City Council for Tuesday, February 3rd. Please join me in a pledge of relations and invitation with council members. And to the republic for which we stand. Okay. There are, I see, like a few little seats spattered in. So if you're standing, or if we've got anybody out in the hall that's looking for a seat, know that we do have a handful, and I'm sure everybody would be willing to scooch to the middle. I believe Darren's going to uh set us up for that. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, member of councils on November eighteenth of twenty twenty-five. This council voted to grant emergency funds to the Chattanooga area food bank. And as a follow-up to how those funds were utilized for the benefit of our community, I would like to introduce to you, Melissa Blovens, President and CEO. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for a few minutes of your time. I will be very brief. So first and foremost, thank you for your time. Thank you for the commitment in Q4 of 2025 for the investment during the federal shutdown and the snap disruption for many of our neighbors. Even before the shutdown, cuts to federal nutrition programs have impacted our ability to meet the basic human need of food for many of our neighbors and continues to weaken the safety net for families experiencing hunger. Because of your support, um, thank you to you and the mayor. We were able to respond in real time to the highest needs basically overnight. Uh we were able to open our food pantries for later hours and extended distributions. We're able to put extra food on every cart. Um, and we were able to support the local pantries across the Chattanooga footprint in addition to the Foxwood Food Center. We invested uh a 25% of the funding from the city directly into those food pantries across our communities. So what we also know today is food insecurity remains elevated anywhere in a in and across Chattanooga and Hamilton County. 60,000 of our neighbors may not know where their dinner is coming from tonight. Um that includes 15,000 children, so we've got a lot of work to do. Um we know that food costs have gone up 25 percent since 2020. We expect food costs in 2026 to go up again another three to six percent. So that's gonna continue to impact us at the grocery stores as well. So here's what I really want to conclude with is when federal safety nets falter, our local community came together, our local leadership stood up and said, not in our community, we're not letting our neighbors go hungry. Your local leadership matters. We're so grateful for that. Thank you to the city council and the mayor. Your actions during the SNAP disruption demonstrated Chattanooga chooses to be a supportive, responsive community in meeting the needs of those facing hunger. Um and I want you to know you have our commitment. We will continue to be uh the network of community partners and volunteers and supporters to meet the needs of any family facing crisis today or any crisis that our community faces in the future. Um so finally, I just want to thank you for showing up. Many of you came out to volunteer as well. Thank you for showing up and giving a gift of your time. And um, I would invite any of you to come back if you've got any time. Um, City Council plus all those in the audience. We need every volunteer weekend to make sure our neighbors are served with dignity, compassion, and respect. So that is all I have unless there's questions. Councilman Elliott. Thank you, Mal Chair. Do you guys have any numbers of the surge of folks who came for assistance during that time? In the four in the 13 days that SNAP disruption was occurring, we saw 40% surge. Okay. Okay.