Reimagining Community Agriculture in Nashville

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to live in a version of Nashville where there was food growing everywhere? In every neighborhood, at city parks, churches and public offices, vacant lots, schools, your neighbor’s yard, and everywhere in between? As 2024 comes to a close and we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited to announce that we are embarking on a journey to transform our current network of three gardens and farms into a citywide hub-and-spoke model of community agriculture. 

Five Tips for a Low-Waste Holiday

This Thanksgiving, Americans are projected to waste upwards of 316 million pounds of food. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If every household in America made small, intentional changes, we could make it a day of celebration for people and planet. Here are a few tips to reduce food waste that Chief Culinary Officer Bianca Morton has learned and adapted during her years at the Food Project.

Jenn's Season of Food with Friends

Earlier this year, volunteer Jenn Crimm wrote, photographed, edited, and designed her own cookbook — a labor of love that aimed to preserve the meals that got her through a tough season. Food has always been central to Jenn’s life, from growing up in a close-knit Italian family to forging friendships around the table in Nashville. Her grandmother's cheesecake, a cherished but undocumented recipe, inspired her to create a cookbook to ensure her own recipes could be passed on to her loved ones.

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Sustaining Change: Three Years of Block to Block

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There’s something to be said for things that grow steadily over time — like a well-tended garden. And just like the garden requires patience, care, and dedication to show up again and again, so do partnerships that create lasting change. For the last three years, Love, Tito’s, the philanthropic heart of Tito’s Handmade Vodka, has supported The Nashville Food Project as part of their Block to Block program. 

Overflowing With Apples!

When Joe Hodgson decided it was time to retire, he knew he would have to find something to keep him busy. And it seemed like at every turn, an apple orchard would show up. He and his wife, Penny, interpreted it as a kind of sign — and with his background as a landscape architect, tending trees didn’t feel too unfamiliar. They bought several acres in McMinnville and got to planting.

Expanding McGruder Community Garden

Now in its fifteenth growing season, McGruder Community Garden is a space where people from all walks of life gather to find connection, learn from one another, and grow food for themselves and their communities. The garden includes several colorful raised garden beds, a pollinator garden full of fresh flowers, and a small orchard of fruit trees, and is lovingly tended  by community members in partnership with The Nashville Food Project. Recently, a team helped us install 12 more raised beds, expanding our production capacity by 50 percent.

The Role Of Public Transportation In Food Accessibility: Part Two

In part two of her blog series on public transit's impact on food availability, Director of Food Access Tera Ashley evaluates the affordability, variety, and quality of produce typically available in low-income, low-access areas. While many might draw conclusions that there is not demand for as much produce in these areas, anecdotal evidence indicates otherwise.

Tender Summer at The Nashville Food Project

In the world of communications, knowing your organization inside out is crucial to telling its story. As a communications intern for The Nashville Food Project I have enjoyed telling our stories, but more importantly, I enjoyed having the privilege to learn by experiencing them myself. The Nashville Food Project’s mission is to bring people together to grow, cook, and share nourishing food, with goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in our city.

Looking Back at Nourish 2024

Earlier this month we hosted our 14th annual Nourish, presented by Kroger. We are humbled and so incredibly proud to announce that this was our most successful Nourish to date, raising over $260,000! However, beyond a fundraiser, this night is one we always look forward to as a special time to share connection over a beautiful meal with so many friends, volunteers, and supporters.

Lake Days, Tomatoes, and Fueling Fun with Jackson®

Our food access partner Water Walkers has a mission of tearing down the boundaries between urban youth and outdoor adventure — and in the summer, that mission takes them straight to the lake. But what’s a boat day without a picnic? Thanks to Sweet Peas Summer Eats for Kids, sponsored by Jackson National Life Insurance Company (Jackson®), Water Walkers can count on daily deliveries of made-from-scratch meals that keep these young bodies nourished and able to learn, grow and play while on the water.

FeedBack Nashville: Community Listening

FeedBack Nashville (FBN) spent the month of June hosting a series of Community Listening Sessions to understand how people are experiencing food in Nashville and get feedback on the findings of the FeedBack Nashville food system survey: a city-wide survey that received more than 600 responses. FBN partnered with Network for Sustainable Solutions to meet with community members throughout Nashville to share the initial themes from our city-wide survey, and receive community members’  feedback and suggestions on preliminary findings.

The Role of Public Transportation in Food Accessibility: Part One

To combat food insecurity among low-income, low-access households without vehicle ownership, the availability of public transportation is paramount. The increased mobility that often comes with efficient, reliable public transportation may affect the accessibility of fresh fruits and vegetables in three ways: increased affordability, increased variety, and elevated quality. Director of Food Access Tera Ashley explores how food access and transportation are related in the first installment of this three-part series.

Food For The Heart — And Soul — In North Nashville

We already know the vital role that food plays in health. But how does that affect communities where the most easily accessible foods are processed and plastic-wrapped items in corner stores? For patients at Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center in North Nashville, which has historically been a food desert, uncontrolled hypertension is a direct consequence of this issue.

Cafe Collaboration with The City Juicery

Last December, Kayla Hall wandered into The Nashville Food Project at the same time as over a hundred other Nashvillians to celebrate the launch of FeedBack Nashville, a citywide initiative to evaluate and reimagine the local food system. It was her first time in the building, and although the main room was packed to the brim, she had a vision for what the space could be. So she asked to see the kitchen. 

Bringing Fresh Produce to Cosecha, Woodbine's Hyper-Local Market

Every Wednesday during the summer months, a local grassroots organization gathers neighbors together on the front lawn of Woodbine United Methodist Church, which faces the neighborhood’s busy Nolensville Pike corridor. Cosecha Community Development's market thrives as a vibrant hub of community and commerce in South Nashville, hosting a small but mighty range of businesses and nonprofits as diverse as the Woodbine neighborhood’s own dynamic cultural landscape.