I don’t think it’s fair to say there are “food deserts” in Nashville. Food deserts indicate a lack of affordable fresh foods. Affordable as compared to anywhere else that is. I look at places like Detroit Michigan that for many years had 0 grocery stores within its city limits. Nashville is a city that requires a car and was not built with the intention of being walkable. Even when the germantown adjacent area at Rosa Parks and Monroe (the farmers market) was very, very bad they always had the Kroger available. With that being said, there is a Trader Joe’s in Sylvan park and a Kroger less than a mile west of the Nations and Sylvan Park. There’s also a Costco just up the road. The airport has a Sams Club 10 minutes away and a few Krogers within a 10 minute drive.

Nashville has rural roots, so things are more spread out. I don’t know where you heard about bad food quality but that’s just silly. But overall I can get fresh food just as inexpensively as anywhere else in the city if I drive for 10 minutes.