Hands in the soil, heart in the community

Since May 2025, Mary Jess Holt has offered more than 200 hours of her time volunteering. In that time, she has tended both the soil and the shared life that grows around it. You might find her at the South End United Methodist Garden, hands deep in cucumber vines, or in our main kitchen, helping transform recovered food into nourishing meals. Wherever she is, Mary Jess brings curiosity, warmth, and a genuine desire to learn.

A student at Belmont University majoring in Economics and Chinese, Mary Jess first encountered our work through her church, where she once taught one of our founder Tallu Schuyler Quinn’s children in Sunday School. When she began thinking about how to spend her summer with intention, she remembered the stories her parents had shared about our work and decided to step into it herself. “I wanted to understand where food really comes from,” she said, “and how I could be part of its journey.”

Over 200 hours

offered in service to community since May 2025.

That curiosity carried her from garden to kitchen. At the South End United Methodist Garden, Mary Jess worked alongside long-time volunteers and growers like Joe Bowman and Linda Bodfish, asking thoughtful questions about why each practice mattered and what helped the garden thrive. Ann Cover, who has led the site for more than fourteen years, watched her grow into a confident presence. “Mary Jess became a skilled volunteer,” Ann shared. “She could teach others how to pick green beans or manage the cucumber vines. She often took on ‘cucumber rounds’ with good humor. Not everyone loved that task, but she made it her own.”

The garden was often filled with laughter. Joe Bowman would tease her by saying, “When you are in your thirties, you will start a garden.” She would laugh along, though it was clear to everyone that he might be right. Even after her semester began, she returned on October 1 simply because, as she put it, “I just missed the garden.”

What Mary Jess values most is seeing how small acts of care accumulate. Planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting are not isolated tasks. They are part of a larger movement that carries food from soil to table across the city. “It is inspiring,” she said, “to see how people show up with such consistency and conviction, in both the gardens and the kitchens.”

Whether she is harvesting heirloom tomatoes, sharing produce with neighbors, or searching for the last cucumber hidden among scratchy vines, Mary Jess embodies the values that guide this work. Stewardship. Hospitality. Transformation. She reminds us that community grows slowly, one faithful act at a time, and that tending the earth and one another is work that is both humble and deeply meaningful.

Thank you, Mary Jess, for your steady presence, your curiosity, and the quiet care you bring to every space you enter.

December's Seasonal Bounty: A Feast for the Senses

As the year draws to a close, December brings a generous offering of seasonal produce. These fruits and vegetables remind us that nourishment begins long before a meal reaches the table. It begins in the soil, in the hands that tend the land, and in the shared commitment to care for one another.

At The Nashville Food Project, we value the way seasonal food connects us. It honors local farmers. It strengthens our gardens. It brings fresh, healthy ingredients into our kitchens, where they become meals shared with partners across the city.

The Green Giants
Brussels sprouts, kale, and Swiss chard thrive this time of year. Brussels sprouts offer a deep, nutty flavor when roasted. Kale brings strength and color to warm salads, soups, and stews. Swiss chard, with its bright stems and tender leaves, cooks quickly and adds nourishment to any meal. These greens mirror our values of resilience and care.

Root Vegetables
Carrots, beets, and turnips grow quietly beneath the surface, storing sweetness and strength. They remind us that much of our community work happens out of sight, yet its impact is deeply felt. Carrots offer brightness, beets bring rich color, and turnips become tender when roasted.

The Sweet and Citrusy
Oranges and grapefruit reach their peak in December and bring a lift to winter days. Their brightness reflects the hospitality we aim to extend through every shared meal.

Winter Comforts
Winter squash and sweet potatoes offer warmth and steadiness. Their hearty nature mirrors the consistency our partners and neighbors rely on. These ingredients form the base of many scratch-made meals prepared in our kitchens.

Seasonal produce teaches us about stewardship, interdependence, and the generosity of the land. This December, may the bounty of the season inspire us to grow, cook, and share in ways that nourish both neighbor and community.

Holiday Helpings: when action nourishes community

Meals shape who we are and how we belong. This season, Holiday Helpings invites us to remember that nourishment, connection, and care are gifts meant to be shared.

Visit participating businesses during Holiday Helpings. Every contribution helps us grow, cook, and share nourishing food with neighbors across Nashville. Food brings us together. Your generosity keeps that work moving.

Holiday Helpings Partners

This season, we are grateful for the businesses who have opened their doors to support Holiday Helpings. Below, you will find all participating partners. Tap any business name to learn more about what they offer.

These partners remind us that food is one of the most powerful ways we show up for one another. When you dine, shop, or gather with them, you help nourish another neighbor in Nashville.

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If your business is contributing to Holiday Helpings or would like to explore additional ways to support this work, we would love to connect with you. This includes businesses already participating in ways we may not yet know about, as well as those interested in joining the effort. Email us at: events@thenashvillefoodproject.org.

Your support helps nourish neighbors across Nashville in a season where care and connection matter more than ever.

Growing Together Farmer's Market: New Generations Award recipient

This week, we were honored to receive the New Generations Award at the Salute to Excellence celebration hosted by the Center for Nonprofit Excellence of Middle Tennessee.

This recognition celebrates our Growing Together Farmers Market, a cornerstone of The Nashville Food Project’s Community Agriculture Network and a living example of what it means to cultivate belonging through food.

For more than a decade, Growing Together has supported refugee and immigrant farmers in Nashville. These skilled agrarians from Burma, Bhutan, and beyond bring deep agricultural knowledge and rich food traditions to our shared city. With access to land, tools, training, interpretation, and markets, these farmers are reclaiming agricultural heritage, building economic independence, and nourishing their communities.

In 2024, seven farming families cultivated more than 30,000 pounds of produce on a single acre of land, earning nearly $92,000 in total income and growing their CSA program by 67 percent from the previous year. Each seed planted is more than a crop. It is a story of resilience, hope, and homecoming.

Launched in the spring of 2025, the Growing Together Farmers Market is the only market in Nashville located on an urban farm stewarded by immigrants and refugees. Nestled in the heart of the city’s International Corridor in Antioch, the market connects cultures through shared food traditions. Shoppers find familiar flavors from around the world, such as Nepali mustard greens, roselle, and long beans, alongside Southern staples like collards and kale.

The market also serves as a model of partnership and accessibility. The Nashville Food Project manages point-of-sale systems, provides multilingual signage, and promotes the market citywide so that farmers can focus on growing and connecting with their customers. Each week, this small corner of Antioch becomes a meeting place of stories, flavors, and futures, a vision of what a just and sustainable food system can look like.

We are deeply grateful to the Center for Nonprofit Excellence for this recognition and to our growers, partners, and volunteers who make this work possible. The New Generations Award honors their hands, hearts, and courage and reminds us that the next chapter of Nashville’s food story is already being written in the soil.

Because when we grow together, we do not just grow food.
We grow belonging.

There is enough when we work together

Updated: 11/7/2025 at 12:00 PM

Across the country, millions of families are waiting for clarity on November SNAP benefits. It has been announced that 50% of November benefits will be paid, but it is still unclear when those funds will be available.

Here in Nashville, that uncertainty is already being felt. Families who depend on SNAP to buy groceries have not received their benefits this month. Behind each number is a name, a home, and a story of resilience.

Our commitment does not waver. Every week, our team recovers food, prepares nourishing meals, and shares them across the city. No matter what, Nashville neighbors will continue to find care around a shared table.

To meet this moment, we have opened a second kitchen shift that will provide an additional 1,000 meals each week. This expanded capacity allows us to respond week by week as community needs evolve.

We have also updated our kitchen needs list to reflect the current situation. Right now, protein donations are most needed.

• Together for Nashville

  Current efforts in Nashville include:

  • Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee: emergency food distribution and mobile pantries: Hunger Can’t Wait.

  • Open Table Nashville: outreach and connection to Food Boxes/Pantries and meals

  • YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee:family support and community care.

  • The Branch:neighborhood food assistance and meal delivery.

  As more nonprofits and organizations share their plans, we will keep this space updated with new ways to connect, support, and give.

• How You Can Help Right Now

  Give: Your support today helps us keep fresh ingredients moving where they are needed most. Every dollar helps turn recovered food into hot, healthy meals.
  ➜ [Donate here]

  1. Volunteer: From meal preparation to garden work to food distribution, your time makes a difference.
     ➜[Volunteer]

  2. Share: Tell others about the need. A simple post or conversation can connect someone to a meal or a way to help.

  If you or someone you know is affected by the loss of SNAP benefits, please visit thenashvillefoodproject.org/together for updates, community resources, and ways to get involved.

  This city has weathered hard seasons before. Each time, Nashville has shown that compassion is stronger than crisis. Together, we will show once again that care always finds its way to the table.

• other efforts include:

  Healing Minds and Souls: 500 weekly community meals and medically tailored meal boxes to families and seniors across the 37208 zip code

  We hold fast to a simple belief: there is enough. When we work together, we can make sure that good food continues to find its way to every table.

together

Each and every contribution makes a big impact.

Building a Healthier North Nashville, Together

In North Nashville, community means care.

Through Heart of Nashville: Operation Pulse, we are part of a growing network of people and organizations committed to helping neighbors manage hypertension through free rides, clinical care, and nourishing meals. This work is led by the Nashville Wellness Collaborative, a partnership of more than twenty local organizations that share one conviction: that health and hope are not luxuries, but basic conditions of human dignity.

Members of the Collaborative include NashvilleHealth, Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, The Nashville Food Project, Belmont Data and AI Collaborative, Meharry Medical College, The Sycamore Institute, Urban League of Middle Tennessee, Center for Nonprofit Excellence, Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee, Juice Analytics, STARS, American Heart Association, Senior Ride Nashville, AgeWell Middle Tennessee, Raphah Institute, Metro Parks Nashville, The Housing Fund, Metro Public Health Department, Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, and Second Harvest Food Bank.

Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center serves as the anchor of this initiative, guiding patient care and connecting families to the resources they need. By sharing best practices and lessons learned, Heart of Nashville is nurturing an ethos of wellness that complements our city’s deep spirit of creativity and growth.

Together, we are working to show that where you live should never determine how healthy you can be.

This effort focuses first on reducing high blood pressure in North Nashville while learning from this work to inform how all of Nashville can be healthier. A recent countywide survey by the Belmont Data and AI Collaborative found that 31 percent of adults in Nashville live with high blood pressure. In North Nashville, that number is nearly half. Behind these figures are real lives, families, and neighborhoods where wellness is both a need and a hope.

At The Nashville Food Project, we see our city not as a grid of streets and buildings, but as a living table. A table where shortage meets possibility and where every plate carries a story of care. We believe that the heart of Nashville is not found in its skyline, but in the simple act of sharing food.

Each day, food that might have been lost is gathered, cooked, and shared. Vans leave our kitchens carrying more than ingredients. They carry care. They carry the belief that nothing good should go to waste. Our work affirms that abundance is possible when people come together. The work of food recovery is not only logistical. It is moral. It is a daily act of restoration.

The gardens, the kitchens, the vans, and the shared tables are all part of a system of care. Yet the most essential structure is the relationship between people. When transportation is limited or grocery stores are out of reach, the answers are not only technical. They are relational. We can improve roads and expand routes, but most of all, we must widen the circle of care.

We imagine a Nashville where abundance is not conditional. A city where everyone has access to fresh food, meaningful work, and true belonging. We are not only distributing meals. We are cultivating hope. We are making space at the table for everyone.

Every effort in Heart of Nashville is an act of gathering. It is a circle of people who choose to care for one another. That story continues each day, one meal, one neighbor, one act of love at a time.