The Nashville Food Project’s Blog
TNFP Welcomes Kia Brown as Garden Coordinator
Kia Brown, a New York transplant, has lived in Nashville for 11 years. She's had lots of adventures along the way including school at the University of Memphis where she earned her B.S. in Geography and a year serving in AmeriCorps…
Kia Brown, a New York transplant, has lived in Nashville for 11 years. She's had lots of adventures along the way including school at the University of Memphis where she earned her B.S. in Geography and a year serving in AmeriCorps. While traveling the country during her service year, she spent a couple of months in Seattle and discovered her love for growing both food and community.
Kia loves to travel and explore, which led to a summer interning at the Nashville Zoo and an interest in new hobbies such as metalsmithing. You might encounter Kia leading groups in any of our gardens, but she works closely with the Green Thumbers in the McGruder community garden .
A Day in a Dozen: 12 photos tell the story of one day at TNFP
A variety of volunteer groups meet in the Wedgewood garden each morning to work. This group from RISE (Refugee and Immigrant Students Empowered), a youth program of the Center for Refugees + Immigrants of Tennessee, paused for a lesson on the importance of bees.
Meanwhile back at the kitchen, a morning crew of volunteer cooks prepared trays of sausage strata made from donated and gleaned ingredients that will be delivered to Bethlehem Centers.
By 1 p.m., a volunteer prep team had arrived including Olivia, a young woman visiting Nashville and Woodmont Christian Church on a mission trip from Ohio. She chopped kale harvested from the Wedgewood garden the previous day.
Then at 3 p.m., a two-person team swooped in to prepare hot meals for 170 people. The meals on two separate truck runs would head out by 5 p.m. As part of the process, Judy clipped herbs from the garden behind the kitchen.
Then she prepared squash boats over roasted greens including produce gleaned from Delvin Farms and a donation of meats.
The squash boats would be served with slaw made with donated produce from Granbery farm.
Just before 5 p.m., volunteers arrived to load trucks and deliver the food.
While one truck headed for Rex Courts, an Urban Housing Solutions property, another truck left for the Community Meal at Trinity United Methodist.
Grace, TNFP Outreach Coordinator, plated food with volunteers at Trinity United Methodist...
...as guests began to gather for the meal.
And a parting gift? Produce to-go with recipes!
TNFP Welcomes Makisha White as Meals Coordinator
Makisha with volunteers from Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC), a component facility of the Navy Reserve Center.
Makisha was introduced to TNFP last year when her family took on a community garden plot at Wedgewood Urban Garden. Now she is thrilled to be part of our staff as she steps into her role of Meals Coordinator. Makisha's desire to serve others was inspired by her father's military service. Her career began in nursing, but recently she changed gears in order to embrace her true passion of cooking and serving her community. She stays busy balancing her job at TNFP while finishing her Bachelor of Science Degree in Culinary Arts Management at The Art Institute of Nashville and enjoying family time with her husband and 3 children. In her leisure time she loves cooking and gardening (of course), and trying new activities like camping and zip-lining. Stop by our kitchen - Makisha is looking forward to meeting you!
Local Vegetables
Kale, zucchini, cucumber and lettuce growing within a few feet of our kitchen. It couldn't get much fresher than this.
Learning and Giving
The SNAP Challenge gives participants a view of what life can be like for millions of low-income Americans living on the average daily food stamp benefit of about $4 per person per day…
The SNAP Challenge gives participants a view of what life can be like for millions of low-income Americans living on the average daily food stamp benefit of about $4 per person per day. These ladies divided into teams and shopped for groceries with this budget as their guide.
Their careful shopping and meal planning resulted in over 500 pounds of pantry items, fresh produce, dairy and meat which they had arranged to donate to us! The generous folks at Tyson/Elanco (who helped facilitate the event) topped it off with an unexpected $500 donation! We are so grateful to be the recipient of these generous gifts.
Cabbage!
Meals Manager Anne Sale helps Treanor Granbery unload 345 pounds of cabbage donated from the Granbery farm. Meals Coordinator Makisha White is excited to include this beautiful green and purple cabbage in our meals this week. A huge thank you to the Granbery family for their generosity!
A Note
Dear Grace,
Everyone was so grateful for the food that Nashville Food Project provided to our first ever Defend Your Rights workshop in Cayce public housing. With kids, 18 people participated, so it was the perfect amount of food. The greens were the biggest hit. Here's a couple photos from the workshop. One is of some of the participants and the other is of a skit on organizing against workplace abuse.
Thanks. You rock.
A Simple Pleasure
We cultivate gardens to be places where we grow great food and community. These lavender bundles are one of a thousand everyday gifts from the garden to be used for brightening our lives…
We cultivate gardens to be places where we grow great food and community. These lavender bundles are one of a thousand everyday gifts from the garden to be used for brightening our lives and the lives of the people we work with and serve.
Delishousness!
These beauties are growing in our Wedgewood Urban Garden and just beg for sampling. Let's count the ways that black raspberries are delicious: sprinkled on salads, eaten by the handful, mixed into sauces, added to yougart... what's your favorite raspberry delight?
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.