RestoreOKC is turning 10, and the Northeast Oklahoma City nonprofit is marking the milestone with a free neighborhood festival on October 3, complete with food, live music, mural projects, farm tours, and a headline performance from national Christian artist Tedashii. The event, called Ten(d), runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2222 NE 27th Street, the same campus where the organization grows produce for its own grocery store.
According to The Journal Record, the festival will include a 3 p.m. program in which co-founder and executive director Caylee Dodson and board chair Kori Hall will present a look back at the organization's decade of impact in the neighborhood. Musician Ckai Dawson is set to perform at 2 p.m., ahead of that presentation, before Tedashii closes out the day with a 3:30 p.m. headline set. Organizers are encouraging attendees to pre-register for the free event at givebutter.com/10-year-festival, per the same report.
A Decade Built on Four Pillars
RestoreOKC was founded in 2016 with a mission to rebuild community systems in Northeast Oklahoma City, working across health, education, housing, and employment, the outlet notes. Dodson, who co-founded the organization and has led it since, was named USA Today's Oklahoma Woman of the Year in 2022, the Journal Record reports. Before returning to Oklahoma City in 2014, Dodson earned a journalism degree at Oklahoma State University and spent nearly a decade in St. Louis directing community ministry programs for women in crisis, according to Metro Family Magazine.
The Ten(d) festival's location is not incidental. Restore Farms, the organization's urban agriculture program at the 2222 NE 27th Street campus, features a greenhouse and a community food forest; middle and high school students work at the farm, according to Restore Farms. The farm's classroom beds sent home more than 1,150 pounds of fresh produce in 2019, the group says.
From Church Ministry to Regional Grocery Player
That produce pipeline feeds directly into RestoreOKC's best-known project: The Market at Eastpoint, a grocery store the organization opened in 2021, per the Journal Record. The store reached its fifth anniversary this year, and Oklahoma City Free Press reported that it has created more than 180 jobs, generated $7.5 million in local economic activity, and posted fresh-produce sales at roughly three times the national average. Before the store opened, Northeast Oklahoma City was described as a food desert after the area's last major supermarket closed in August 2019, according to Supermarket News.
To scale that model up, RestoreOKC launched a $7.5 million fundraising effort this year to acquire and maintain community-aligned operation of a full-size Homeland grocery store at NE 36th Street and Lincoln Boulevard, the outlet's report on the store's anniversary noted. Hoodline covered the campaign and the store's five-year milestone in an earlier report on the food desert fight. The store's grocery-access mission has also drawn support from the city's transit system: EMBARK offers a free weekly round-trip shopping shuttle for people age 60 or older or with disabilities.
Housing and Workforce Projects Expand the Footprint
Housing has become another major front for the organization. In August, the Oklahoma City Housing Authority announced a redevelopment partnership with the Creston Park Collaborative — made up of RestoreOKC, NEOKC Renaissance, and Open Design Collective — to build more than 170 mixed-income housing units in the historic Creston Park neighborhood using MAPS 4 funding, according to NEOKC Renaissance. Hoodline detailed the project's scope in coverage of Creston Park's revival roadmap.
The organization has also built out workforce training. In March 2024, Lowe's announced a grant-supported 3,200-square-foot workshop on RestoreOKC's campus, supporting local skilled-trades training and neighborhood home repairs, according to Lowe's. The organization also provides employment opportunities through its farm and The Market, and MetroFamily reports a 37 percent increase in teacher retention at schools served by RestoreOKC.
That range of programs has earned RestoreOKC national recognition. The organization operates one of only 17 designated Family Resource Centers in Oklahoma and was selected in 2025 as one of just 25 Purpose Built Communities network members nationwide, according to Impact Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Housing Authority and Community Enhancement Corporation provide housing assistance to more than 14,000 people. Ten years after starting as a neighborhood ministry effort, RestoreOKC will mark that growth on October 3 with the same community it set out to serve, gathering residents at the farm that started it all for food, music, and a look back at what's been built.
