Nashville city leaders team up with nonprofit to challenge current food system
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Feeding America estimates more than 8,000 people in Tennessee need more food. Nonprofit, The Nashville Food Project, is collaborating with 16 city leaders to develop a new program called FeedBack Nashville.
“FeedBack Nashville is working to change the food system,” Hanes Motsinger, Chief Program Officer/The Nashville Food Project, said. “So the food system is everything that is entailed in getting food from the ground, the seed, to the plate, to the landfill.”
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The two-year project received its first round of funding in April 2023 from the American Relief Plan Act from Metro Nashville from the COVID-19 Oversight Committee. The Healthcare Association Foundation (HCA) also submitted funding to the program.
FeedBack Nashville aims to educate and feed Nashvillians through discussions on how to stop wasting food, get food to the people who need it, and ultimately build a better food future.
“In our city, some folks have grocery stores next door, some folks have to go two miles to access a grocery store,” Motsinger said. “So how do we make the pieces better work together for all communities in Nashville? So that every single person in our city can know that they are going to have food at the end of their very busy day.”
The program came about after the organization’s founders saw the daily challenges many farmers and Nashville residents face when it comes to selling and buying food.
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“Despite our city’s rapid growth, 12.4% of Nashville residents and one in five of its children lack reliable access to food,” said Mayor O’Connell in a statement.
After years of independent groups trying to solve existing hunger and food waste challenges, FeedBack Nashville looks to create change to benefit Nashville and the surrounding counties through teamwork and one combined goal.
News 2 spoke with one Columbian native who said this program will help people like her who want to incorporate other cultures’ fresh produce into their diet.
“If you know, I was going to raise bi-cultural children, and the best way to share culture is to share food,” Patricia Tarquino with Cosecha Community Development said. “I needed to learn how to grow food; I needed access to land.”
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“It’s very possible that we all can grow our own food and have access to land and do it together and make healthy choices as a community,” Tarquino said.
Community events with FeedBack Nashville will start in January 2024. Click here to learn more about the organization.
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