During a time of uncertainty, local social worker Jada Knight says she’s happy she has one less thing to worry about for Thanksgiving this year.
“It’s just something not to worry about. You can worry about other things that’s going on with COVID,” she said.
That’s because she and her family were three of at least 700 people served free Thanksgiving meals thanks to the nonprofit Feeding Nashville. Knight said it added “some normality to the year,” despite an otherwise very different Thanksgiving.
“We asked people to sign up last week and it sold within 24 hours,” said Taylin Lewan, one of the nonprofit’s co-founders. “What we discovered about the need for this is it was so much bigger than what we ever anticipated,” added Hayley Hubbard, the nonprofit’s other co-founder.
Feeding Nashville was created in the wake of the Nashville tornadoes but has continued to serve the community during the pandemic.
“So my friend Hayley Hubbard and I got together and we created this concept of having chefs who’ve been let go from their jobs due to COVID cook meals for people who need it for free,” said Lewan.
Using the honor system, the goal is to provide a free meal for those who need it – no questions asked.
“You give one person an opportunity to have a hand up maybe they can go help somebody else also have a pay it forward mentality”, said Taylor Lewan, Titans offensive tackle and husband of Taylin.
To date, the organization has served 40,000 meals and counting but donations are needed to help pay those unemployed chefs who cook these meals.