Photo by Cecelie Eiler
by Annie Slaughter, Food Access Coordinator
In Southeast Nashville twelve micro homes are making a big difference in both the housing and medical fields. The Village at Glencliff is a medical respite community which aims to bring people experiencing homelessness dignified and quality medical care after they have been released from the hospital. While the average stay is 90 days, residents can stay in their program until they are able to secure permanent housing. In addition to medical care, the Village at Glencliff offers their residents homemade, nourishing meals provided by The Nashville Food Project. We share about 85 meals a week with the residents.
The village, which is located at the Glencliff United Methodist Church, had their groundbreaking in July and hit the ground running in late summer. “We had a COVID program since folks were being put in the old jail. They were literally having to stay in jails because they were unhoused and they had COVID,” said Zoey Caldwell, the organization’s volunteer and program manager. “It was scary, initially, I will be honest. I was so glad not to be a worker on the front lines and then suddenly that is my job. But there was a need and we had to do what it takes a village to be and do and that was to step in where we were needed.”
The Village at Glencliff is the first medical respite community in the country that allows residents to bring a partner and have pets while offering three meals a day and guaranteed, individual housing until a permanent living situation is found. “We want to be the national and even international model of what that grace looks like,” says Caldwell.
Zoey Caldwell (left), Cecelie Eiler (right)
They also have a rain garden, raised beds, and various medicinal and edible plants around their campus. The gardens, which were designed and implemented with the help of Nashville Foodscapes, were the dream of Cecelie Eiler, the Village’s administrative and data manager. “One thing I realized with my research was that gardening and having access to more hands-on food production, localized food production, has a lot to do with our mental, spiritual and physical healing. Which are all large components of who we are as humans,” Eiler says.
Photo by Cecelie Eiler
If you would like to help The Village of Glencliff, they offer twice monthly volunteer garden work days as well as volunteer opportunities to provide companionship and skill classes to their residents. “We need people to come and be a friend. That was a big thing, we didn’t want people to come and feel isolated,” Caldwell said. “We want this to be a community.”
Sign up to volunteer here: https://www.villageatglencliff.org/volunteer.