I've ran into this same problem, i'll share my solution.
First you need a reference to the Nav Controller in the Tab Bar in the nib file, make sure you connect it up.
IBOutlet UINavigationController *navigationController;
Then, get the Controller as recommended in the support docs and send it the managedObjectContext:
SavedTableViewController *saved = (SavedTableViewController *)[navigationController topViewController];
saved.managedObjectContext = self.managedObjectContext;
Alex (from another post) is right, "You should generally stay away from getting shared objects from the app delegate. It makes it behave too much like a global variable, and that has a whole mess of problems associated with it."