Karissa
For Karissa, hope is found in the many people and offerings that become part of one shared story.
A meal rarely begins in the kitchen. It may begin with a farmer gathering the morning’s harvest, a business setting aside ingredients that can still be used, or a volunteer choosing to spend a few hours chopping vegetables beside someone they have just met. It may also begin with a community partner who understands where food is needed and how best to share it.
By the time everyone gathers around the table, many people have already had a hand in what is being served.
As Senior Director of Food Access at The Nashville Food Project, Karissa sees those connections every day. Her work is shaped by a belief that food can do more than nourish the body. It can create the conditions for people to recognize and care for one another.
“What gives me hope is that food has a unique ability to bring people together across differences,” Karissa shared, “not only to share nourishment, but to feel seen, known, and connected.”
Food has always carried this possibility. A table asks people to pause. It gives them a reason to sit beside one another. Conversation may begin with what is on the plate, but it rarely ends there.
For Karissa, the work of food access is not only about moving food from one place to another. It is about the relationships that make that movement possible and the dignity with which food is grown, prepared, and shared.
“A farmer’s harvest, a recovered ingredient, a volunteer’s time, and a community partner’s work can all become part of one shared story,” she said.
Each contribution may seem small when viewed on its own. Together, they form a food system rooted in cooperation rather than isolation. Growers bring knowledge of the land. Cooks transform ingredients into meals. Volunteers offer their hands and time. Community partners bring trusted relationships with neighbors. No single person or organization carries the work alone.
“A thriving community is built when growers, cooks, volunteers, partners, and neighbors bring what they have to the table and rise together,” Karissa reflected.
That collective effort is what gives her hope. It can meet an immediate need while also creating something more lasting: stronger relationships, greater access, and a food system shaped by the people who live within it.
For The Nashville Food Project, this means looking beyond the meal itself. Nourishing food matters deeply, but so does how it reaches someone, who had a voice in the process, and what becomes possible when people work together.
As Karissa shared, this work “can do more than meet a fundamental need. It can catalyze individual and community transformation while building a more sustainable and accessible food system across Nashville.”
Hope, in this sense, is not abstract. It is visible in the harvest, the recovered ingredient, the hours spent preparing a meal, and the partner who welcomes a neighbor to the table. It is built through many people bringing what they have and trusting that, together, it can become enough.
