The Nashville Food Project’s Blog
Cookin' Up A Storm
Volunteer cooks Nancy and Jencie have been cooking for us over a year. They rock in our tiny kitchen! We are so grateful for their talents and support!
Volunteer cooks Nancy and Jencie have been cooking for us over a year. They rock in our tiny kitchen! We are so grateful for their talents and support!
Growing, growing, growing...
The Bhutanese gardeners at our Wedgewood Urban Garden are working hard planting, harvesting and setting up trellises for tomatoes and peppers. Come see for yourself how good these gardens are looking.
Mt. Carmel Supports Youth
We are excited to partner with Mt Carmel's new program, G.A.N.G (Gentlemen And Not Gangsters) - a youth mentoring group that's teaming up with the Juvenile Courts. We're sharing 30 lunches served alongside their weekly meetings. Our first lunch was delivered last week and was happily welcomed to the table!
Delvin Farms Helps Feed the Community
Volunteer Kelly Hines, TNFP kitchen staff Sarah Morgan and Darrius Hall, garden coordinator Madi Holtzman, Hank Delvin Jr. and intern Marijke Kylstra harvest at Delvin Farms. (Marilyn Lane participated but was busy taking this photo!)
We are thrilled to partner with Delvin Farms this growing season. Every Monday morning TNFP staff and volunteers will travel to this beautiful organic farm in College Grove to harvest vegetables from their fields. We will use this food in our meals to help feed some of Nashville's most vulnerable residents. With a crew of six workers last week, we harvested 135 lbs of squash & zucchini, 30 lbs of kale, 25 lbs of onions and 10 lbs of strawberries. We are so grateful to the Delvin family for their generosity of sharing this beautiful produce. If you would like to join us on the farm, contact Darrius Hall at darrius@thenashvillefoodproject.org.
It's a Mystery
Potatoes!! Awesome students from Harvest Hands helped hill the potatoes--that is, pile soil around the plants' foliage to encourage the growth of more roots, and therefore more potatoes!
Potatoes!! Awesome students from Harvest Hands helped hill the potatoes--that is, pile soil around the plants' foliage to encourage the growth of more roots, and therefore more potatoes!
Hide and Seek
Thanks to employees from the Nashville Predators for coming out to help at our Wedgewood Urban Gardens! They got to put their predatory skills to use by hunting for hard-to-spot snow and sugar snap peas.
Thanks to employees from the Nashville Predators for coming out to help at our Wedgewood Urban Gardens! They got to put their predatory skills to use by hunting for hard-to-spot snow and sugar snap peas.
You're Invited!
ITOP students take a break to play and be carefree on their last workday of the semester at the Wedgewood garden.
We are partnering with the Frist Center and the Oasis Center’s International Teen Outreach Program (ITOP) to create a unique art installation in celebration of the United Nations' World Refugee Day. Join us at our Wedgewood Urban Garden from noon until 2pm on Saturday, June 20th, when teaching artist Daniel Furbish and the teens will unveil their artwork. The Wedgewood garden is located at 613 Wedgewood Avenue. Additional street parking is available along Benton Avenue. Hope to see you there!
Dinner Made Easy
This fabulous mother-daughter duo visited their plot at the McGruder Community Garden and left with harvest bags stuffed with sugar snap peas and all kinds of cooking greens--mustards, turnips and collards oh my!
Goodlettsville Middle School
We want to extend our sincerest appreciation for the students at Goodlettsville Middle School who designed and implemented a concessions business to raise money for local causes. We are the humbled and grateful recipient of a generous donation from these young social entrepreneurs. They not only came to present their donation, but happily jumped into several garden projects - on the coldest day of spring! Huge thanks to these students! You are an inspiration!
Lunch is Served!
This delicious meal of pineapple glazed ham, mac n cheese, garden salad and garlic bread was served up to much applause last week.
Nourishing a Community
These gardeners participate in our market garden trainings with TNFP garden manager Christina. They are preparing their plots for transplanting tomatoes that we've been growing in our greenhouse. Chandra, front left, recently sold $250 worth of mustard greens to his Bhutanese neighbors from his first spring harvests. Stay tuned for more information about a market stand we'll help operate this summer.
Getting their Adventure On!
Team Green volunteers rocked a recent Saturday morning volunteer session at our Wedgewood Urban Garden. These folks know how to work hard and have fun doing it. We can't wait til they come back.
In the Kitchen
These friendly members of Harpeth Heights Baptist Church joined us in our prep room recently. Beautiful fruit salads that included local strawberries were the highlight of the salads! If you would like to join us for meal prep, sign up here!
Simply Beautiful
Our spring crops are thriving as we await the much anticipated summer fruits. Pictured here starting from the bottom is a bed of buckwheat, two beds of leaf lettuce, a bed of chard, snow peas (yum!), and finally the tall grass in the background is winter rye. Want to help harvest or pull a few weeds? Drop by anytime.
Salad Train
This year's lettuce harvest has allowed us to include beautiful salads on over 2,000 meals thus far. This photo is one of the beautiful salads we've made that included TNFP lettuce, strawberries from Nashville Grown and hard boiled eggs from Foggy Hollow. Thanks to all the hundreds of volunteers that planted, tended, harvested, washed, chopped and made these tasty dishes to help us nourish our community.
Many Friends
Our onions are growing strong. Thanks to this awesome group from Friends Life for mulching them well with straw to keep the soil cool and moist. Thanks friends!
A Splash of Color
Our stir fry entrees were topped with TNFP grown cilantro and served along side our fresh salads. This meal made for a colorful week in our prep room and garden. We hope you are enjoying spring produce!
Sharing Hospitality along with a Meal
A mens group from Woodmont Christian Church pose with Tallu before taking their monthly truck run to Murfreesboro Road, where they share a meal with residents of Mercury Courts. Woodmont, its members and its Senior Minister Dr. Clay Stauffer have been so supportive of our work from the beginning. We are grateful!
In the garden
GM Financial sent out their A-team to volunteer recently in our gardens. They turned compost, planted carrots, and harvested spinach without one word of complaint on the first day to break 90 degrees this year. Thank you for all the hard work!
A Sweet Donation
This Cub Scout troop sent along something special with their donation.
Cub Scout Troop 221 recently donated 200 delicious made-from-scratch cookies for our meals to be served at Operation Stand Down. They included this sweet note along with their gift! If your group is interested in providing dessert for any of our meals, contact Anne Sale at anne@thenashvillefoodproject.org. We'd love to put you on our calendar!