This yr, Cul2vate, a nonprofit that goals to deal with meals insecurity in Nashville, grew 440,000 kilos of produce. Of that, 320,000 kilos was donated to organizations that assist feed individuals in want in Nashville, together with The Heimerdinger Basis, Second Harvest Meals Financial institution and The Nashville Meals Undertaking.
These kilos of produce are only a small a part of meals dignity efforts in Nashville, says Jennifer Diehl, director of communications and growth for Cul2vate. But it surely’s sufficient to make a distinction.
It may be arduous to recollect in a metropolis the place luxurious model Hermès opens a retailer, and the place vacationers recurrently drop tons of on drinks and dancing on Broadway, however many Nashvillians recurrently battle to feed themselves and their households. The Dwelling Wage Calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise reveals that in 2025, an grownup in Davidson County must make $25.41/hour to earn a dwelling wage — which means they will cowl their fundamental wants with out exterior help. However the minimal wage in Tennessee is simply $7.25 an hour, lower than the $7.52 an hour MIT reviews is the poverty degree. A 2024 ballot from Vanderbilt Baby Well being discovered that 40 % of Tennessee households with youngsters say they’re meals insecure. In consequence, Diehl says, many individuals work a number of jobs with the intention to feed themselves and their households.
Sadly, the state of affairs doesn’t seem like it’ll enhance within the brief time period. As of this writing, Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) funds are more likely to be frozen on Nov. 1 because of the present federal authorities shutdown. Cuts had been scheduled for 2026, so households already in want of help may have to seek out different sources for meals.
Most of the organizations Cul2vate companions with assist feed immigrant populations within the metropolis. As federal funding for these organizations has ceased, the necessity has elevated.
“Now we have seen an enormous rise in want from our companions who want meals and wish funding,” Diehl says. Along with supplying produce, Cul2vate has tried to assist in different methods, akin to delivering produce, as some organizations misplaced funding that paid for bills like drivers. “It’s a fragile topic,” Diehl says of the crackdown on funding for feeding immigrants. However she notes that there are lots of trickle-down results on organizations that folks may not understand.
Whereas the scope of Nashville’s meals insecurity will be overwhelming and miserable, the temper at Cul2vate is something however.
Cul2vate farm
Based in 2016, Cul2vate gives a multifaceted method to aiding with meals insecurity. Its mannequin helps individuals (primarily however not solely males — girls started in this system about 5 years in the past) in restoration get again into the workforce whereas serving to develop meals for the hungry. The tales across the farm are extra about pleasure and hope than they’re about hardship.
That’s actually been the case for Ziggy, who began as a “Cul2vator” about six months in the past. He was one among 10 individuals who labored half time on the nonprofit whereas honing his job-readiness and life expertise. Eight of the present Cul2vators, together with Ziggy, will go on to Part 2 this winter — a program that features extra classroom coaching in forestry and hospitality in the course of the months when fields go fallow.
“This isn’t only a 9-to-5 job,” says Ziggy. “It’s not like an peculiar job the place you’re going there and also you’re going through these evils day-after-day. I do know I can come right here and be protected, and so they care, and so they’re serving to me day-after-day to get by this.”
Cul2vators full quite a lot of duties, together with weeding, fertilizing and harvesting at a number of websites — amongst them Ellington Agricultural Heart, Brentwood Baptist and a number of other different group backyard plots. Cul2vate recruits Cul2vators from Males of Valor, the post-prison re-entry program during which Ziggy was enrolled, and different organizations serving to individuals in restoration.
It’s a giant distinction from founder Joey Lankford’s unique imaginative and prescient: “We’ll have a pair greenhouses, we’ll give away a pair tomatoes,” Diehl says. Lankford has labored with a ministry in South Africa known as Dwelling Hope, and having a Bible-based meals dignity program together with these tomatoes was all the time a part of his imaginative and prescient. It matches with their motto: “Rising meals and rising individuals.”
Cul2vate will get help for its packages in quite a lot of methods, together with by gross sales of produce, honey and different merchandise at its Farm Retailer on Hogan Street in Ellington Agricultural Heart, and its CSA bins. Company companions, together with Tractor Provide Co., and people make donations. There are occasions, akin to an annual fundraising dinner known as Fellowship on the Farm, and workshops, akin to an upcoming pressed-flower class on Nov. 8. There are extra actions in the course of the rising season — March to November — however Cul2vate is busy behind the scenes within the offseason, and there are alternatives to donate and to volunteer. Consultants in quite a lot of matters — from find out how to write a résumé to find out how to prune an apple tree — could also be known as on to talk to Part 2 courses, and there are different alternatives to guide prayer and different ministry work.
Cul2vate CSA Field
For the 2025 harvest season, to achieve extra individuals, Cul2vate labored with Belmont College college students concerned in Enactus, a world social entrepreneurship membership.
“Now we have been meals insecurity since I joined as a freshman,” says Belmont Enactus president Ava Munyer. “We began to get within the weeds with our downstream companions, like meals banks, and we realized this enormous provide problem of recent native produce. We first tried to deal with this by constructing our personal group backyard and rising our personal meals to donate instantly. Whereas rising just a few kilos of meals is spectacular and useful, it’s not reaching the wants of our group. So we began on the lookout for individuals locally who had been rising meals on a big scale.”
After being linked to Cul2vate, the scholars developed advertising and messaging round its CSA program, together with growing a construction the place individuals can donate their CSA share to somebody in want, along with shopping for it for private use. The objective, says Belmont Enactus vp Lily Stockwell, is to assist Cul2vate carry in additional income by shifting the share of produce it donates and the share it sells. This mannequin permits for the meals to nonetheless be donated whereas Cul2vate collects funds. They report that their efforts raised greater than $13,000 this yr.
Each Stockwell and Munyer are seniors, and are persevering with to work with Cul2vate “for so long as they may allow us to,” Stockwell says.
That’s the form of connection Diehl says Cul2vate has been constructing for the previous decade. “Breaking bread with individuals and having a dialog round meals is all the time very considerate and really biblically primarily based,” she says. “Every single day we see miracles within the work that we do.”
