The Nashville Food Project’s Blog
Shared Roots
Food brings us back to one another.
There is a certain kind of belonging that begins around food. Not simply because we gather to eat, but because food carries memory with it. It carries culture, tradition, and story. A recipe passed down across generations, a vegetable that reminds someone of home, a meal that speaks a familiar language without saying a word. Food tells us who we are and where we come from, and in sharing it, we often find ourselves returning not only to our own histories, but to one another.
At The Nashville Food Project, we believe belonging is built when people are able to see themselves reflected at the table. Not only through welcome, but through recognition. Through ingredients, flavors, and traditions that affirm identity and honor lived experience. Across Nashville, our community continues to grow more connected, diverse, and interdependent. In our gardens, kitchens, and community meals, people bring with them histories, knowledge, and foodways shaped by many different places and experiences. What emerges is not sameness, but something richer: a shared table where difference is not erased, but valued.
This is part of what nourishment means. Nourishment is not only physical. It is relational, cultural, and emotional. It is the feeling of being known and welcomed as your full self. It is hearing your language spoken, recognizing a familiar ingredient, or sharing a meal that reminds you of family and home. Belonging grows in these moments, often quietly and over time, through repeated acts of care and connection.
We see this every day across the work of The Nashville Food Project. We see it at the Growing Together Farmers Market, where growers share produce connected to traditions from around the world. We see it in community gardens where neighbors exchange recipes, stories, and growing techniques across cultures and generations. We see it in meals shared with nonprofit partners throughout the city, where food becomes a reminder that care and dignity belong to everyone.
In a time when isolation and division can feel overwhelming, gathering around food offers another way forward. It reminds us that our lives are deeply connected and that community is strengthened when everyone has a place at the table. Building belonging community requires all of us: people willing to grow food, prepare meals, share resources, volunteer time, and invest in a future where everyone has access to the food they want and need.
This month, as we reflect on the ways food has shaped our own stories, we are reminded that these connections do not happen on their own. They are cultivated through collective care and sustained by people who continue choosing to show up for one another. These are our shared roots, and from them, something beautiful continues to grow.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate | Attend an Event
Meet the Drivers of Change Joining Our Development Team This Summer
This summer, two new interns will spend their days learning how stories, relationships, and community support sustain The Nashville Food Project's work across Nashville.
As members of our Development Team, Avery and Cora will experience a side of nonprofit work that often happens behind the scenes. While meals may be the most visible expression of our mission, every meal shared begins with something deeper: people. People who volunteer their time. People who invest in the work. People who believe that food can bring communities together.
For Avery, that learning begins with storytelling.
"I'm looking forward to developing my storytelling skills by helping share the stories behind The Nashville Food Project's 15 years of service and impact."
As The Nashville Food Project approaches its fifteenth anniversary this September, Avery will help capture and share stories that reflect the heart of our work. Some of those stories live in the kitchen, where meals are prepared each day. Others begin in community gardens, partner organizations, volunteer shifts, and neighborhood gathering spaces. Together, they tell the story of a city that continues to show up for one another through food.
Storytelling has always been an important part of our mission. Every meal shared, every volunteer welcomed, and every partnership formed is rooted in human connection. Through her work this summer, Avery will help elevate the voices of the people who make our work possible and the neighbors whose lives are touched by it.
For Cora, the summer offers a different perspective on how change happens.
"I am excited to learn more about The Nashville Food Project's mission and impact in the Nashville community by assisting the Development team. This internship will not only challenge me but also help me grow in my communication and research skills."
Working alongside our Development Team, Cora will help strengthen the relationships that sustain our mission. She will learn how philanthropy, community engagement, and donor stewardship work together to support The Nashville Food Project's ability to grow, cook, and share nourishing food across Nashville.
While many people encounter our work through a meal, a farmers market, or a volunteer shift, there is an entire network of supporters behind those experiences. Their generosity helps ensure that nourishing food reaches neighbors across the city while supporting a stronger and more connected local food system. Through her internship, Cora will gain a firsthand understanding of how those relationships are cultivated and sustained over time.
One of the most valuable parts of serving on our Development Team is seeing how interconnected every aspect of The Nashville Food Project truly is. The generosity of donors helps expand our reach. Volunteers transform ingredients into meals. Community partners help ensure those meals reach the people who need them most. No part of the work stands alone.
As Avery and Cora begin their summer with us, we are grateful for the curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm they bring to our team. We are equally excited for what they will learn about the power of food, community, and collective action.
At The Nashville Food Project, we believe that cultivating a more nourished Nashville requires people at every stage of their journey. Investing in emerging leaders is one way we continue building toward that future.
Please join us in welcoming Avery and Cora to The Nashville Food Project. We look forward to learning alongside them and seeing the impact they will make in the months ahead.
Elevating Voices: Lexie
When Lexie first learned about The Nashville Food Project, it was through a class project researching nonprofits in Nashville. What began as academic research quickly became something more personal.
“The mission really resonated with me,” Lexie shared.
A few years later, that connection led her to complete an internship with us during the fall semester of her senior year. What she expected to be a meaningful learning experience became something much deeper: a community rooted in care, hospitality, and shared purpose.
“I had the best internship experience and loved the people here,” she said. “So I continued volunteering after my internship finished.”
Today, Lexie serves as a volunteer driver, helping deliver nourishing meals to community partners across Nashville. Through each route, delivery, and conversation, she has witnessed the way food creates connection not only between neighbors, but also among the people working together to share it.
“Every connection I made was created thanks to food,” Lexie reflected. “We all see the value of food in nourishing our bodies and bringing people together.”
For Lexie, volunteering became about more than delivering meals. It became about being part of a network of care that stretches across the city.
As she spent more time with staff, volunteers, and community partners, she found herself drawn to the shared values at the center of the work: dignity, compassion, and a belief that everyone deserves access to nourishing food.
“I think the connections I formed here have felt so uniquely deep and rewarding because of those shared values,” she said.
Driving routes throughout Nashville also gave Lexie the opportunity to witness firsthand the impact of consistent, caring relationships. The gratitude and kindness she encountered from community partners and neighbors receiving meals stayed with her long after each delivery ended.
“The kindness and appreciation from those receiving our deliveries make the healing power of food really clear,” she shared. “Getting to interact with so many nice people throughout the Nashville community kept me coming back.”
At The Nashville Food Project, food is never just food. It is a way of showing up for one another. A way of building trust, community, and belonging over time.
Lexie’s story is a reminder that sometimes the smallest acts, loading meals into a car, making a delivery, sharing a moment of conversation, can become part of something much larger: a city where people care for one another through food.
And often, those connections begin with simply showing up at the table together.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate | Attend an Event
Staff Spotlight: Logan
Food as a Language of Care
Before Logan joined The Nashville Food Project, she knew she was searching for more than just a job. After studying Agroecology at University of California, Santa Cruz and moving across the country, she wanted her work to feel grounded in purpose, surrounded by people who believed in building a more caring and connected world.
“When I came across The Nashville Food Project, I was drawn to the mission immediately,” Logan shared. “Food, justice, dignity — those are all things that deeply matter to me.”
She applied for multiple roles over the course of a year and a half before finally landing on the Share team. Today, as our Produce Access Manager, Logan helps expand Produce Rx, a food-is-medicine initiative that connects patients experiencing food insecurity and diet-related chronic conditions with access to nourishing food through healthcare partnerships.
For Logan, the work is deeply personal because food has always been tied to love.
Some of her earliest memories center around her childhood kitchen, watching her mom move effortlessly between the stove, cutting board, and crowded holiday tables, creating meals that made everyone feel welcome. Logan remembers helping prep vegetables, stirring pots on the stove, and proudly serving as the designated taste tester. In the summers, her family harvested basil from their backyard garden by the bundle, turning it into homemade pesto that she still says is the best she has ever had.
But what stayed with her most was not just the food itself. It was the feeling her mother created around it.
Their home became a gathering place, especially during the holidays. Friends, neighbors, and anyone without a place to go always had a seat at the table. Through those moments, Logan learned that food could be more than nourishment. It could be comfort. Hospitality. Care. A reminder that someone belongs.
“I think people can taste the love in food,” she reflected.
That understanding continues to shape the way Logan approaches her role at The Nashville Food Project. During her first year, care looked like delivering meals to partner organizations across Nashville. Today, it also looks like helping expand access through Produce Rx and supporting neighbors navigating both health challenges and food insecurity.
“Food can be an act of caring, and it can also make people feel cared for,” she said. “When someone feels cared for, dignity is sparked.”
Outside of work, Logan still finds herself returning to the kitchen. Cooking remains one of the places where she feels most grounded and most herself. She also loves spending time near the water, traveling, watching movies at The Belcourt Theatre, listening to live music in small spaces, and spending time with her dog.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate | Attend an Event
Welcome Casey Carr, COO
We are pleased to announce the hiring of Casey Carr as our new Chief Operating Officer. Casey will join our leadership team and help guide organizational strategy, internal operations, and program integration during a season of continued growth and deepening community impact.
Casey brings more than a decade of leadership experience in nonprofit management, philanthropy, fundraising, and organizational development. Most recently, she served as Chief Operating Officer at Harvest Hands Community Development Corporation, where she led strategic planning, managed organizational growth, and strengthened systems supporting staff, programs, and long-term sustainability.
“Casey brings a rare combination of operational excellence and deeply relational leadership,” said C.J. Sentell, CEO of The Nashville Food Project. “She understands that healthy systems are ultimately about people, about creating the conditions where trust can grow, teams can thrive, and mission can flourish. We are grateful to welcome her to The Nashville Food Project.”
Founded in 2011, The Nashville Food Project brings people together to grow, cook, and share nourishing food, with the goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in Nashville. Through urban agriculture, scratch-made meals, and collaborative food access programs, we work toward a vision of vibrant community food security in which everyone has access to the food they want and need through a just and sustainable food system.
Casey’s experience spans operations, fundraising, people management, and community engagement. Across her career, she has focused on building organizations where mission and culture reinforce one another, aligning systems, strategy, and relationships in service of lasting impact.
“The Nashville Food Project models a kind of community our city deeply needs,” said Carr. “Food has the power to connect people, restore dignity, and cultivate belonging. I’m honored to join an organization so committed to hospitality, justice, and shared stewardship, and I look forward to supporting the staff and community partners who make this work possible every day.”
In her role as Chief Operating Officer, Casey will oversee key internal operations and support collaboration across our programs, people, and strategic initiatives.
As Nashville continues to face growing challenges around food access, housing instability, and economic inequity, we remain committed to building a more connected and resilient food system, one relationship, one meal, and one neighborhood at a time.
JOIN THE TABLE
Community does not happen by accident. It is something we build, moment by moment, through the ways we show up for one another.
At The Nashville Food Project, we see this every day. A volunteer walks into the kitchen for the first time and is met with a warm welcome. A gardener steps into the field and is invited to learn alongside others. A meal is shared among people who may not have known each other before, but leave feeling connected in a new way.
These moments are simple, but they matter. They are how community begins.
To be welcoming is more than offering an invitation. It is about creating the conditions where people feel like they belong once they arrive. It is about making space for people to bring their full selves, their stories, their cultures, and their experiences. It is about recognizing that food is not just nourishment, but also a way we connect to one another.
Across our gardens, kitchens, and community meals, we see what happens when that kind of space is created. People from different backgrounds come together and begin to share knowledge, traditions, and perspectives. What starts as a shared task becomes something deeper. Relationships begin to form. Trust begins to grow.
In these spaces, community expands.
Welcoming community also asks something of us. It asks us to notice who is present and who is not. It invites us to reflect on what might be keeping someone from stepping in, and what it would take to make that step feel possible. It reminds us that access and belonging go hand in hand.
When people feel welcome, they do more than participate. They contribute in meaningful ways. They bring ideas, leadership, and care that shape the community itself. The table becomes fuller, not just in number, but in depth and richness.
This work is ongoing. It is built through consistency, through listening, and through a willingness to grow together.
As we move through this season, we are reminded that there is always room for one more. Whether in the garden, in the kitchen, or around the table, each person who steps in helps strengthen what we are building together.
Pull up a chair and join us.
There is a place for you here.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate | Attend an Event
Elevating Voices: Mandy
Sometimes the path into community begins with a question. Sometimes it begins with research. And sometimes, if you follow that question far enough, it leads you somewhere you did not expect to stay.
For Mandy, that path led her to The Nashville Food Project.
Mandy first came into relationship with The Nashville Food Project through her PhD fieldwork at Vanderbilt University, where she studies immigration, racialization, and community resistance in Nashville. As she followed those threads, they began to converge.
“All paths quickly took me towards The Nashville Food Project,” she shared.
What began as research became relationship. She started working alongside the Grow Team and farmers at Growing Together Farm and has remained rooted in that work ever since.
Mandy’s research is grounded in the spaces where food is grown and shared. Her work, conducted in partnership with The Nashville Food Project, centers on the lived experiences of farmers and the ways community takes shape through shared land and labor. She studies not only what is grown, but what is made possible through growing.
Across community gardens and farms, people from many different backgrounds come together, bringing knowledge, memory, and tradition with them. In these shared spaces, something shifts. Farmers are not only cultivating food. They are actively remaking their worlds. Their work reflects the layered histories of Nashville’s land and the possibilities of what it can become.
Ask Mandy about food, and she will likely bring up kohlrabi. It has become emblematic of many things in her work, from community ties through root vegetables to transnational growing traditions and evolving foodways. Through her research, she has come to understand that food is always changing, shaped by the people who grow it and the communities that sustain it.
Stepping outside of what feels familiar opens up a fuller picture of the city. It reveals a Nashville that is not singular or fixed, but diverse, dynamic, and continually emerging.
“Food is dignity,” Mandy says.
Her path into food justice began in schools, working with Latinx students and supporting food pantries. There, she encountered a reality that reshaped her understanding of food insecurity. It was not only about access to calories. It was about access to foods that nourish in every sense, including culture, identity, and belonging.
She remembers sorting through pantry items and discarding expired food that did not always reflect what people wanted or needed. In those moments, it became clear that nourishment is about more than availability. It is about dignity.
At the heart of Mandy’s work is a belief that feels both grounded and hopeful. Communities know how to feed themselves. The challenge is access.
Access to land.
Access to resources.
Access to culturally affirming foods.
This is where the work of growing, cooking, and sharing food becomes something more. It becomes about transformation and about building food futures shaped by the people most connected to them.
At The Nashville Food Project, we see this every day in the gardens and growing spaces where knowledge is shared across languages, generations, and experiences.
Last season at the Growing Together Farmers’ Market, Mandy spent time encouraging kids to carve kohlrabi instead of pumpkins. It was a small moment, but it carried something meaningful. An invitation to try something new and to see differently.
Mandy’s story reminds us that food is never just about what is on the plate. It is about who has access, whose knowledge is valued, and whose traditions are sustained.
When communities have what they need, they do not just grow food. They grow connection, resilience, and possibility.
And in that, we begin to see what a more just and nourishing food system can look like.
National Food Waste Prevention Week 2026
There is a hard truth at the center of our food system.
Nearly 40% of all food grown for human consumption is wasted.
At the same time, one in seven Tennesseans, including one in six children, does not have consistent access to the food they need.
These realities exist side by side.
Not because there is not enough, but because of how our systems move, value, and distribute food.
What Food Waste Prevention Week Reminds Us
Each year, Food Waste Prevention Week invites us to pause and reconsider our relationship with food.
Observed this year from April 7 through April 13, the week brings together communities across Tennessee through events, conversations, and shared learning.
It is a moment to raise awareness, but also to take action.
To understand labels more clearly.
To plan meals more intentionally.
To store food in ways that extend its life.
Small shifts that, together, begin to change a much larger system.
An Invitation to Give Food
Reducing waste is one part of the story.
Sharing what we have is another.
In addition to financial support, we welcome donations of food that can be used as ingredients in nutritious, scratch-made meals. Whether it is fresh produce from your garden or surplus from a licensed kitchen, your contribution helps us turn food into care.
We receive donations by appointment so we can ensure every item is used well and with intention.
When you are ready to donate, our team will connect with you to understand what is available and how it can best be incorporated into our meals.
Get Involved
If you have food to give or would like to host a food drive, we would love to connect.
Reach out to David Frease at davidf@thenashvillefoodproject.org or (615) 460-0172 to coordinate your donation.
Because when food is shared, it becomes something more.
It becomes a way we care for one another.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate
Elevating Voices: Brennan
Sometimes the path into community begins with a simple question: where can I show up?
For Brennan, that question led him to The Nashville Food Project. He was looking for something real. Something grounded. Something that mattered. And what he found was a garden.
Brennan came to this work with a belief that feels both simple and urgent: there is enough food, and everyone should have their share. That conviction led him to volunteer at the Community Farm at Mill Ridge, where he stepped into the work outdoors, in the dirt, among the growing things.
Looking back, that choice also brought him closer to memory. His mother loved gardening. Not always the work of it, but the knowing of it. The life within it. In some way, returning to the garden became a quiet way of returning to her.
At The Nashville Food Project, Brennan supports garden construction and planning, helping shape the spaces where food can grow. It is work that often happens behind the scenes, but makes everything else possible. Beds that hold seeds. Structures that support growth. Spaces that make gathering possible. Not everything happens at the table. Some of it happens before the table even exists.
Food has long been part of Brennan’s story. From watching cooking shows as a kid to working in food service to help pay for college, he learned early that food is more than sustenance. It is a way of showing up. “If I did the cooking, I could help carry the load at home,” he shared. Along the way, he noticed something simple but lasting: people want to share what they know. Recipes, techniques, stories. Food becomes a language we can all speak.
“Sharing a recipe or the experience of dining together creates a bond.”
In a world that often emphasizes difference, food reveals common ground. We gather, we eat, we share, and in those moments, connection takes root.
Each Christmas, Brennan and his family begin curing a country ham, a tradition passed down from his mother-in-law. What starts in winter is shared in summer. “It means a lot to her,” he says. “It’s a unique experience for me.” In this way, food becomes more than a meal. It becomes memory, relationship, and care carried forward.
Brennan puts it simply: food is even better when it’s shared.
That belief sits at the heart of our work. Our goal is not just to grow food or cook it, but to create the conditions where sharing is possible, where community can take shape.
There are many ways into this work. In the garden. In the kitchen. In the spaces that support both. All of it matters.
Because what we are building is not just a food system. It is a community shaped by care. And there is always room for one more at the table.
There is a place for you in this work
There is a quiet kind of work that holds everything together.
It does not always make headlines. It is not always seen. But it is steady, necessary, and deeply rooted in care.
It looks like showing up.
It looks like tending soil before anything has grown.
It looks like preparing meals that will be shared with someone you may never meet.
It looks like recovering food that might otherwise go to waste and choosing, instead, to give it another purpose.
This is what it means to be a service-minded community.
Service is often thought of as something big. A single act that makes a visible difference. But more often, it is made up of small, repeated choices.
A volunteer who signs up for a shift.
A neighbor who helps tend a garden bed.
A team that chooses to recover food instead of discarding it.
On their own, these actions may seem simple. Together, they shape something larger.
They build trust. They build connection. They build a community that takes responsibility for one another.
At The Nashville Food Project, stewardship is not separate from our work. It is how we do our work.
It shows up in the way we care for land through our gardens and farms.
In the way we prepare meals with intention, using food that has been grown, donated, and recovered.
In the way we reduce waste, knowing that every ingredient carries value.
Through efforts like Waste Not Wednesday, we are reminded that food recovery is not just about efficiency. It is about respect.
For the resources that went into growing that food.
For the people who will receive it.
For the system we are all a part of.
Service does not require perfection. It simply requires presence.
A willingness to participate. A willingness to care. A willingness to begin.
There is a place for you in this work.
And this April, there are many ways to step in.
Step Into the Work This April
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate | Attend an Event
National Agriculture Day at The Nashville Food Project
On National Agriculture Day, we honor the people and practices that make it possible for food to reach our tables.
It is easy to think of food at the point of consumption. A meal served. A plate shared. A moment of nourishment. But every meal begins long before that. It begins in the soil, in the steady work of planting, tending, and trusting that something will grow.
At The Nashville Food Project, agriculture is not separate from community. It is where our work begins.
Across our Community Agriculture Network, this work is already taking root. At sites like Growing Together Farm, the Community Farm at Mill Ridge Park, McGruder Community Garden, Our Hands Community Garden, and Southend United Methodist Church, neighbors come together to grow food, share knowledge, and care for the land. New spaces, including Hope Community Gardens and Donelson Community Garden, will continue to expand this work in the years ahead.
These are not just places where food is grown. They are places where community is built.
In these gardens and farms, people gather across generations and experiences. They learn what it means to steward land. They take part in the slow and intentional work of growing food. They see firsthand how small acts, repeated over time, can lead to something that nourishes many.
This is the kind of agriculture we celebrate.
It is rooted in care.
It is shaped by collaboration.
It is sustained by people who choose to show up.
As we look ahead, this work continues to grow. Through our community orchard initiative, we are expanding what it means to cultivate long-term nourishment. Orchards invite us into a different kind of commitment, one that looks beyond a single season and toward years of shared harvest. They create spaces where communities can gather, care for fruit-bearing trees, and build something that will continue to give over time.
This is what it means to reimagine our food system.
A healthy food system is not built overnight. It is cultivated through relationships, through shared responsibility, and through the belief that everyone should have access to the food they want and need. It is shaped by growers, volunteers, partners, and community members who invest in something larger than themselves.
On this National Agriculture Day, we are reminded that the work of agriculture is not just about growing food. It is about growing connection, resilience, and possibility.
And there are many ways to be part of that work.
You can apply to become a community partner garden.
You can learn more about our growing network of orchards.
You can become a garden or orchard steward.
You can volunteer alongside us in our gardens and farms.
You can apply for a garden plot and begin growing your own food.
Each of these is an invitation.
An invitation to step into the work.
An invitation to tend something that will, in time, grow.
Because nourishment begins here.
In the soil.
In community.
In the shared work of growing something together.
Community Agriculture Network Sites
Growing Together Farm — 299 Haywood Lane, Nashville, TN, 37211
Community Farm at Mill Ridge Park - 12944 Old Hickory Blvd., Antioch, TN 37013
McGruder Community Garden at McGruder Family Resource Center — 2013 25th Ave. N., Nashville, TN 37208
Our Hands Community Garden at Alameda Christian Church — 4006 Ashland City Hwy., Nashville, TN 37218)
Southend United Methodist Church — 5042 Edmondson Pike, Nashville, TN 37211
Hope Community Gardens — coming in 2026
Donelson Community Garden — coming in 2026
At the Table, Episode 2
Welcome to At the Table, a space where we share what is happening day to day at The Nashville Food Project and invite our community into the work.
Chef Bianca, our Chief Culinary Officer, and Peter Burns, our Director of Agricultural Operations, recently sat down to reflect on the season ahead and the many ways people across Nashville are stepping forward to get involved.
In our kitchens, volunteers are already hard at work preparing nourishing meals that will be shared with nonprofit partners across the city. Each week, volunteers help wash vegetables, chop ingredients, portion meals, and keep our kitchens moving. These sessions have become an important part of how we connect with our community, and we are always looking for new ways to welcome people into the process.
At the same time, our garden spaces are beginning to come alive with the energy of a new growing season. As the weather warms and the soil begins to wake up, we are seeing more neighbors, volunteers, and community groups showing up with excitement for the work ahead.
In response, we are inviting volunteers to join us in preparing our growing spaces for the season. This includes helping prepare fields, organize tools, and get the equipment ready that gardeners will rely on throughout the months ahead. These early days of preparation are an essential part of what makes the harvest possible later in the year.
Whether in the garden or in the kitchen, this work is powered by people who care about their neighbors and want to be part of building a stronger food system in Nashville.
If you have been looking for a way to get involved, we would love to welcome you. Volunteers make this work possible.
You can learn more about volunteering at
thenashvillefoodproject.org/givetime
There are many ways to support the work. You can join a volunteer shift in the garden or kitchen. You can participate in one of our upcoming events. You can also help by contributing items that our kitchens need most right now, including cooking oils, rice, and pasta.
To explore volunteer opportunities and upcoming events, visit
thenashvillefoodproject.org/events
Thank you for joining us at the table.
Chef Bianca, Peter, and the entire team at The Nashville Food Project look forward to welcoming you into our kitchens, our gardens, and our community.
Community food security grows when more people pull up a chair.
Thank you for being at the table with us. We look forward to seeing you in the kitchen, in the garden, and around shared meals in the months ahead.
Watch the full At the Table conversation
on YouTube or Instagram.
Featured Recipe from Produce Rx: Butternut Squash with Black Beans
Featured Recipe from Produce Rx
A Program of The Nashville Food Project
Food can do more than fill a plate. It can support healing, strengthen community, and help people care for their bodies in ways that feel sustainable and dignified.
Through our Produce Rx pilot, we are working alongside community partners to support better health outcomes through access to fresh, nourishing food. In partnership with Wayspring, we provide fresh produce for patients while care teams help coordinate access and provide ongoing support.
Together, we are building a model that strengthens dignity, connection, and well-being through food.
One way we support this work is by sharing simple, nourishing recipes that make fresh ingredients approachable in everyday kitchens. This month’s featured recipe brings together two ingredients that are both accessible and deeply nourishing: butternut squash and black beans.
The natural sweetness of squash pairs beautifully with the earthy richness of black beans, creating a dish that is hearty, flavorful, and full of fiber and plant-based protein. Meals like this remind us that good food does not have to be complicated. With a few ingredients and a little care, it is possible to create something both nourishing and satisfying.
Servings: 6
Ingredients
2¾ cups butternut squash, cubed (about 1 small squash, roughly 1 pound)
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon vegetable oil (or cooking oil of choice)
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup water
2 cans (15.5 ounces each) low-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
½ teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Wash hands with soap and water.
Heat the squash in the microwave on high heat for 1–2 minutes. This softens the skin and makes it easier to peel.
Carefully peel the squash with a vegetable peeler or small knife, then cut into ½-inch cubes.
Peel and chop the onion.
In a large pan, heat the oil. Add the onion, garlic powder, and squash. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the vinegar and water. Reduce heat and cook on low until the squash becomes tender, about 10 minutes.
Add the beans and oregano. Cook until the beans are heated through.
Recipes like this are a reminder that nourishing food can begin with simple ingredients and shared knowledge. Through Produce Rx and partnerships across Nashville, we continue working toward a future where access to healthy food supports not only nutrition, but long-term health and well-being.
Together, we are growing a food system where care and nourishment move hand in hand.
Recipe from the United States Department of Agriculture. You can find more recipes at https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/resources/recipes-and-menus
Planting the Future: Building a Community Orchard at Mill Ridge
At The Community Farm at Mill Ridge, the work of growing food often begins quietly.
A shovel pressing into the soil.
Roots spread carefully in a freshly dug hole.
A small tree placed with intention, knowing that years from now it will nourish people who have yet to walk this land.
This spring, that quiet work is becoming something larger. Together with volunteers, neighbors, and partners, The Nashville Food Project is planting a new community orchard at Mill Ridge Park. More than 200 fruit trees and berry brambles will take root here, expanding access to fresh fruit for growers and families across the Antioch community.
An orchard does not appear overnight. It begins with care.
Planting a tree may seem simple. But the details matter if that tree is going to thrive for decades. At our orchard demonstration at The Community Farm at Mill Ridge, volunteers will learn the foundational elements of planting fruit trees in a way that supports their long-term health. Many fruit trees are grafted, meaning two different parts of a plant are joined together to grow as one. The rootstock forms the base of the tree, anchoring it in the soil, while the scion becomes the branches and fruit-bearing portion above ground.
Where those two pieces meet is called the graft union, and it must remain visible above the soil line to protect the tree’s long-term health. Participants also learn to identify the root flare, the place where the trunk widens and transitions into the root system. Keeping this area exposed allows the tree to establish strong, healthy roots.
Understanding these details helps ensure that each tree planted today will grow strong enough to produce fruit for years to come.
Once the tree is placed carefully in the hole, soil and compost are returned around the roots. Volunteers break up clumps, remove rocks, and press the soil gently into place with their hands to eliminate air pockets and help the tree settle securely into the ground.
The final step is mulch. Spread in a ring around the base of the tree, mulch helps retain moisture and protect the soil while leaving the trunk and graft union clear.
Each step may seem small. But together they create the conditions a young tree needs to grow. The orchard taking shape at Mill Ridge is about more than fruit.
It is about expanding tree canopy in a growing part of Nashville. It is about improving soil health and supporting pollinators. It is about creating a place where neighbors can gather, learn, and steward the land together.
And it is about food.
One day, the trees planted here will produce harvests that nourish the Mill Ridge community and the growers who care for this space.
But first comes the planting.
Orchards are acts of patience. They require a long view. The trees planted today will grow slowly, season by season, shaped by the care of the people who tend them.
That is why the planting itself matters so much.
When volunteers gather with shovels in the soil, they are doing more than planting trees. They are investing in a future where nourishment grows in shared spaces and community takes root alongside the orchard.
This is how change often begins.
One tree at a time.
Elevating Voices: Barb Hoffmann & Mary Dionne
Together, their rhythm has been simple and steady. One experimenting. One anchoring. Both caring deeply about the meals that leave the kitchen.
March is National Nutrition Month, a time to reflect on the power of food to strengthen both health and community. At The Nashville Food Project, that power often shows up in simple, steady ways. In the hands that chop vegetables. In the meals shared across the city. And in the friendships that grow around a prep table.
Barb Hoffmann and Mary Dionne first met at The Nashville Food Project not long after volunteers returned to the kitchen following the COVID lockdown.
Barb was helping with prep. Mary was cooking. Somewhere between chopping vegetables and passing pans across the counter, they found themselves drawn into easy conversation and shared laughter. What began as small talk at a prep table quickly grew into something deeper.
Their friendship was sealed on an ordinary afternoon when Barb drove Mary D to an eye appointment. Outside the rhythm of the kitchen, they realized just how much they had in common. Kindred spirits, it turned out, are not always found through grand moments. Sometimes they meet over a cutting board.
Soon after, an opening appeared on Mary D’s cook team. She knew immediately who belonged there.
Since then, Barb and Mary D have spent Wednesday mornings side by side in the kitchen. Cooking, prepping, and bringing a little extra joy to the work of preparing meals for the community.
Salads have become their shared canvas. Mary D delights in creating dressings from whatever fresh ingredients she finds in the cooler. Barb prefers the quiet reliability of a recipe, happily chopping, dicing, and keeping their station moving while Mary experiments with flavor.
Together, their rhythm has been simple and steady. One experimenting. One anchoring. Both caring deeply about the meals that leave the kitchen.
Though Barb has recently moved away, her presence continues to echo through the space she helped shape. In every bowl of greens tossed with care, in every moment of laughter shared across a prep table, the impact of that friendship remains.
Barb and Mary D remind us that nutrition is not only about what we eat. It is also about the community that prepares it, the care that goes into each meal, and the relationships that grow along the way.
Thank you, Barb and Mary D.
Access. Dignity. Infrastructure.
National Nutrition Month®, a time to reflect on how nutrition shapes our health and our communities.
This year’s theme, “Discover the Power of Nutrition,” invites us to look beyond individual choices and consider the broader systems that influence how we eat and live.
At The Nashville Food Project, the power of nutrition is not just what is on a plate.
It is about access.
It is about dignity.
It is about the infrastructure that makes health possible.
Nutrition begins with consistency. It is difficult to make informed food choices without reliable access to nourishing food. Transportation, affordability, proximity, and stability all shape what is possible for families across Nashville.
Through our kitchens, Community Agriculture Network, food recovery efforts, and partnerships with more than 55 community meal sites, we build steady and dignified access across Nashville.
When meals are reliable, health becomes possible. Every day, thousands of meals move through our kitchens and community partners. Behind each one is a network of people and systems working to make nourishment reliable.
Garden plot rentals are available for those who want to cultivate food and connection in shared community spaces.
Volunteer in our kitchens to help prepare and share nourishing meals while building meaningful community connections.
Healthy habits do not exist in isolation. They are shaped by systems. Land access. Kitchen capacity. Transportation logistics. Cross-sector partnerships. Thoughtful stewardship of resources. When these systems are strong, nutrition moves beyond short-term advice and becomes long-term impact. When systems work, communities thrive.
Infrastructure is shaped by many hands. Farmers and cooks. Volunteers and dietitians. Neighbors who share a table and organizations coordinating behind the scenes. The power of nutrition is not only in individual decisions. It is in shared responsibility.
This March, as we recognize National Nutrition Month, we invite you to consider how access, dignity, and infrastructure shape the health of our city. Nutrition is more than a plate. It is the foundation of a more just and connected Nashville.
At The Nashville Food Project, we grow, cook, and share in ways that strengthen this foundation.
Through our network of community farms, we steward land and support neighbors who are growing their own food. In our kitchens, recovered, donated, and locally grown ingredients become nourishing, scratch-made meals. And through partnerships with community organizations across Nashville, those meals reach neighbors who need them most.
By connecting land, kitchens, and community, we stretch resources while strengthening food access across our city. Your support helps nourish neighbors and sustain a food system rooted in care, stewardship, and shared responsibility.
You can explore the impact of this work in our Community Impact Report, which highlights what supporters helped make possible over the past year.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate
Access Matters
At The Nashville Food Project, we are building the infrastructure that makes nourishment predictable and dignified. This is proactive work. It happens in kitchens designed to recover surplus and prepare consistent meals. It happens in gardens where neighbors grow food that reflects their cultures and preferences. It happens in partnerships that align farmers, clinics, agencies, and volunteers toward shared outcomes.
March invites us to focus on what makes nourishment reliable.
In Nashville, food insecurity is not about scarcity. It is about access. Who can reach nourishing food consistently? Who can rely on it week after week? What systems make that reliability possible?
This month, our focus is clear:
Access Matters.
We are building the infrastructure that makes nourishment predictable and dignified. This is proactive work. It happens in kitchens designed to recover surplus and prepare consistent meals. It happens in gardens where neighbors grow food that reflects their cultures and preferences. It happens in partnerships that align farmers, clinics, agencies, and volunteers toward shared outcomes.
Healthy community does not begin in crisis. It begins in steady preparation.
Growing Nourishment That Lasts
There are several ways to engage this month as we continue building access across Nashville.
Growing Together 2026 CSA sales are now open. When you join our CSA, you invest directly in local growers and in a food system rooted in community and care.
Garden plot rentals are available for those who want to cultivate food and connection in shared community spaces.
Our Community Orchard application is also open. If your neighborhood, congregation, or organization is interested in planting fruit trees that will nourish your community for years to come, we invite you to apply. Orchards are long-term investments in shared abundance.
Join our Orchard Planting Party
On March 27 and 28, from 8:15 AM to 12:00 PM, neighbors, volunteers, and partners will gather at 12944 Old Hickory Blvd. for our Orchard Planting Party. Together, we will plant fruit trees that will nourish our city for years to come. This event is open to the public, and no prior gardening experience is required.
You can also strengthen this work through our monthly giving community, Seed Starters. Monthly gifts provide the steady foundation that allows us to plan responsibly, sustain partnerships, and grow meals season after season. Small, consistent support builds lasting impact.
Access is cultivated over time. With care, a handful of seeds can become hundreds of meals. A few hours in the kitchen can strengthen community. A monthly gift can sustain the systems that make it all possible.
This March, we invite you to grow nourishment that lasts.
Get involved:
Volunteer | Give Food | Donate
Elevating Voices: Bridget Bryant
Through farming, she has been able to grow and share produce in ways that connect her more deeply to community. Food has opened doors. It has introduced her to people she might never have met otherwise. It has created opportunities to teach others about the importance of caring for the Earth with intention and respect.
Bridget Bryant’s connection to The Nashville Food Project began at her son’s school.
The Nashville Food Project was there, inviting families to sign up for garden plots. Bridget added her name to the list. What began as a simple step into a shared garden space became something much deeper.
That relationship grew into a partnership. And that partnership helped her expand her work as a farmer.
For Bridget, growing food is not just a business. It is alignment. It is calling. It is the work she was meant to do.
Through farming, she has been able to grow and share produce in ways that connect her more deeply to community. Food has opened doors. It has introduced her to people she might never have met otherwise. It has created opportunities to teach others about the importance of caring for the Earth with intention and respect.
Working with the soil, tending crops, harvesting what has been nurtured over time, she sees clearly that food is a bridge. It bonds people across difference. Regardless of background, belief, or circumstance, everyone shares one thing in common: we all eat.
That shared need creates shared ground.
Bridget carries her family with her in this work. Her grandparents, Ollie Hardaway, Mary Hardaway, Early and Frankie Bryant. Her parents, Eddie and Glenda Bryant. Her best friend, Lisa Hinton. Her brother, Edward Bryant. Their legacy of resilience and care lives in the way she shows up to her farm and her community.
She believes in representing herself fully through her work. The way she grows. The way she shares. The way she teaches. It is all an extension of who she is.
For Bridget, working with the Earth is not simply an occupation. It is vocation.
And through that calling, she is helping cultivate a community where food connects us, grounds us, and reminds us that we belong to one another.
Elevating Voices: Bianca Morton
Food, for Bianca, has always been a connector. A way to show care. A way to build community. A way to express love when words fall short. Her life has been shaped by faith, purpose, and a deep belief that what we make with our hands can change what happens in the world.
Almost eight years ago, Bianca Morton was searching for work that felt purposeful.
As a chef, she had always loved food. But love alone was not enough. She was looking for mission. For meaning. For a place where food could be more than craft.
At The Nashville Food Project, she found it.
Food, for Bianca, has always been a connector. A way to show care. A way to build community. A way to express love when words fall short. Her life has been shaped by faith, purpose, and a deep belief that what we make with our hands can change what happens in the world.
She often speaks of “each one, teach one.” It is not simply a phrase. It is a way of living.
As a young person, Bianca was not exposed to the kinds of dishes she now curates and stewards. But she was formed by something more foundational: the act of breaking bread. Around her family’s table, she learned that food was not performance. It was presence. It was culture made visible. It was love made tangible.
Through her work, Bianca has built relationships with a network of neighbors she never imagined possible. She has supported individuals navigating barriers and helped create pathways into culinary skills through internships, volunteer experiences, food demonstrations, and hands-on training. Representation matters, she says. And in the kitchen, that representation becomes empowerment.
Food is not only nourishment. It is access. It is skill-building. It is dignity.
Bianca also shares openly about her own journey. Diagnosed with clinical depression in high school, she turned to food as a way to manage her emotions. At the time, she did not yet understand what that instinct meant. Now she sees it clearly. Food was not simply escape. It was medicine. It was a catalyst for healing and a pathway toward a healthier life.
That understanding shapes how she leads today.
Whether stewarding large-scale meal production or mentoring someone in their first culinary experience, Bianca approaches the kitchen as a space of care. A space where skill and compassion meet. A space where legacy is formed.
She speaks often of her grandfather. Of yeast rolls rising in the kitchen. Of recipes passed down not only as ingredients and measurements, but as memory and mission. She sees echoes of that same spirit in the founding vision of Tallu Schuyler Quinn: that food, shared with intention, can knit a community together.
For Bianca, this work is about the legacy of tomorrow.
It is about ensuring that the next generation experiences not only access to good food, but the power that comes from learning to prepare it, share it, and steward it well. It is about cultivating kitchens that do more than produce meals. They produce confidence. Connection. Care.
In every tray prepared, every intern mentored, every volunteer guided, Bianca is doing what she has always done.
She is breaking bread.
And in doing so, she is building a community where food is not simply eaten. It is shared as an expression of hope.
At The Table, Episode 1
This series is an invitation to slow down and pay attention. To notice what is showing up in our kitchens, our gardens, and our city. To reflect on how the simple, daily acts of growing, cooking, and sharing food are building community across Nashville.
Each month, you will hear directly from staff members about what they are seeing in their day-to-day work. What is shifting. What is needed. Where hope is emerging. And how you can join us in cultivating food security that is steady, relational, and rooted in care.
This month, we sat down with Maggie, our Volunteer Engagement Manager, and Brad, one of our Meals Coordinators.
What We Are Seeing
As the new year begins, we are already seeing an influx of support from volunteers and partners across the city. That encouragement matters. Community food security is not built alone. It is built together.
On the kitchen side, Brad shared that we are paying close attention to our dry storage. Pantry staples like oil, pasta, and rice remain essential to the meals we prepare each week. These foundational ingredients allow us to respond flexibly and consistently as needs shift.
Behind the scenes, we are also refining our donation sorting process to preserve more food on the front end. This helps us increase kitchen capacity and steward ingredients with greater care before they move into meal preparation. Thoughtful systems allow us to scale without sacrificing quality.
Partnership in Action
Maggie highlighted the strength of our long-standing partnerships with organizations on the front lines, including Open Table Nashville and Trinity Community Commons.
Recently, a group of dedicated volunteers fired up the smoker and prepared Hawaiian ribs served over pineapple rice. These meals were individually portioned and shared specifically with Open Table Nashville.
Moments like this remind us that hospitality is both practical and creative. It is planning and partnership. It is smoked ribs and rice. It is listening to what a partner needs and responding with care.
An Invitation
At the Table is not only about what we are doing. It is about who we are doing it with.
If you are already volunteering, giving, or partnering with us, thank you. Your presence strengthens this work.
If you are new and curious about how to get involved, we invite you to explore our upcoming events and volunteer opportunities on our website. Whether in the kitchen, in the gardens, or through financial support, there is a place for you here.