Vernon Shaw serves as Supervisor, Donor Relationships at Second Harvest Meals Financial institution of Center Tennessee. A proud Tennessee State College alumnus, Vernon earned his Bachelor of Arts in Historical past and carried out as a member of the two-time Grammy Award–successful Aristocrat of Bands, the place he performed tuba.
Since becoming a member of Second Harvest in 2022, Vernon has labored within the Growth division, cultivating and stewarding relationships with particular person and company donors who assist gasoline our mission.
Immediately, Vernon shares his reflections on how Center Tennessee confirmed resilience throughout SNAP cuts and Winter Storm Fern.
Resilience……
All through historical past, so many individuals have exemplified resilience. From Nelson Mandela spending 27 years in jail after which turning into South Africa’s first Black President, to the fictional story of Rocky Balboa beating Clubber Lang after shedding his title to him in Rocky III. Regardless of the place the story derives from, the affect that resilience has on others has the flexibility to create a way of hope for a whole nation of individuals.
Once I consider Resilience, I consider Fred Hampton. Born in 1948, Hampton gained prominence because the deputy chairman of the Black Panther Occasion in Chicago, Illinois. Merely due to his affiliation with the peaceable activist group, Fred skilled adversity from American residents in addition to the federal government for combating for the rights and requirements of Black kids and folks of marginalized communities. Whereas enduring this adversity, Fred based the Rainbow Coalition. This comprised of Younger Patriots (white Southerners), Puerto Ricans, Younger Lords, the American Indian Motion, amongst others. However one of the vital outstanding issues that Fred Hampton cultivated was the Individuals’s Free Meals Program. This labored in congruence with the neighborhood facilities and tutoring providers for youngsters that he and the remainder of the BBP created. Though all of this is for the larger good, Fred Hampton needed to be resilient within the combat for therefore many individuals.
Only recently, we noticed how Center Tennessee confirmed resilience throughout SNAP cuts and Winter Storm Fern. The storm precipitated widespread energy outages, extreme tree injury, and dangerous journey circumstances. This put an enormous hindrance on so many individuals delivering, buying, and receiving meals. Months earlier than that, within the fall of 2025, your complete nation skilled a loss. Not a lack of a proper, however the lack of a typical necessity for over 3 million individuals. It was certainly a time to fret. It was a time of stress and fear for lots of people: households, senior residents, veterans, meals pantries, and meals banks. To say that this was a interval for therefore many to face adversity was an understatement. However like I inform my soon-to-be 5-year-old, “Simply because it’s scary, doesn’t imply we will’t beat it.” Tennessee is called the Volunteer State. Not due to anyone faculty within the state, however due to how Tennesseans present up. The neighborhood donated cash, meals, and their time to fill within the hole for therefore many individuals throughout SNAP cuts. To not point out, throughout Winter Storm Fern, the neighborhood persevered and made positive that meals was distributed to those that skilled energy outages and/or residence injury. Evidently, the individuals within the Center Tennessee neighborhood confirmed up for his or her neighbors.
Resilience is in us all. Fred Hampton was certainly a revolutionary who really exemplified freedom, justice, and most of all, resilience. As we proceed to see how the neighborhood reveals up within the combat in opposition to meals insecurity, we replicate on durations like those that we have now skilled in order that we could know that though the combat is horrifying, we will nonetheless face it, and transfer ahead in development.
