by Elizabeth Langgle-Martin, Community Engagement Manager
On a recent Monday afternoon, our Meals Coordinator, Sarah, poured steaming roasted vegetables with ground beef onto beds of rice in restaurant pans to be labeled and sent out the door on a schedule that runs like clockwork—or at least like a well-rehearsed dance. This dish, like those before it, headed for one of The Nashville Food Project’s 34 partners that serve our made-from-scratch meals alongside their programming from homeless outreach efforts to after school offerings and GED classes.
The ground beef that marries so well with the peppers, onions and tomatoes is part of Porter Road Butcher’s weekly investment of 100 pounds of locally sourced, ethically raised ground beef.
To learn more, we visited Porter Road Butcher’s shop on Gallatin Road recently. Team member April Caldwell said that PRB’s co-founders (Chris Carter and James Peisker), “believe everyone should have access to delicious, pasture-raised meats and are committed to organizations that are focusing on nourishing our community and the Nashville Food Project does just that.”
This level of commitment and generosity through the sharing of high-quality goods is an extraordinary gift from a generous industry. Indeed, farms and food producers throughout the Nashville area have consistently supported TNFP with their investments each year to the point that donated and recovered food makes up 19 percent of our organizational budget. Gifts of high-quality, high-value items like animal proteins are the meat (literally) of many of the offerings we are able to extend to our partners and we have the commitment of folks like those at Porter Road Butcher to thank for it.
So far this year, PRB has already donated 2,700 pounds of ground beef (valued at $8,100 dollars). During my visit, I tasted cheese laden with vegetable ash and took a peek the ivory containers of lard and tallow in coolers, evidence of PRB’s commitment to full animal processing that reduces the waste that happens in mainstream animal harvesting all while yielding versatile, flavorful ingredients for the home cook. April and I chatted next to the smoker behind the building, the rich thick smoke and stacked firewood juxtaposed with sounds of Gallatin Road traffic just steps away.
Similarly, this summer, Tennessee Grass Fed’s generous donation of over 1,000 pounds of all-beef hotdogs meant that we could offer a kid-approved favorite during the peak of summer programming that still met our standard for high-quality, nutrient-dense, flavorful offerings. This summer, TNFP partnered with youth-focused programming and provided over 19,300 meals in just a handful of weeks to meet the nutritional needs of the children our partners serve.
At Tennessee Grass Fed, Phil and Kathy Baggett transitioned family land that has been farmed since 1837 into a grass-fed farming operation in 2007. Located on 422 acres in the Clarksville area, the Baggett family is committed to the health of the land, their animals, and the products they pour into Middle Tennessee communities.
On a balmy summer morning, I sat in their 100-year-old dairy barn-turned-farm store, packing room, and offices around a residential dining table. Shelves nearby were stocked with sauces, seasonings, honey, and other staples and coolers were filled with rows of meat offerings, primarily their own grass-fed beef cuts but also chicken and pork offered through deep inter-farm connections that Phil and the Baggett family has cultivated with other producers. When Phil spoke about their web of providers, it reminded me of TNFP’s value of Interdependence. This includes items like the honey, sauces, and even eggs that they want to display in the farm store to make a convenient stop for customers where they can source a number of their core groceries. The network of local food providers with which the Baggett’s collaborate means that when Tennessee Grass Fed does well in business, a whole network of local farmers also do well, creating relationships built around mutual success and community.
Phil spoke enthusiastically about soil health, perennial ground cover, grass varieties, pasture rotation, and a team that cultivates and cares for the cattle with gentle and intentional respect. Other staff members in the packing room awaited customer orders purchased digitally, carefully packaging and labeling items for either home delivery or delivery to one of the farmers markets or freezer drop sites that makes their high-quality products easily accessible to consumers from East Nashville, to Clarksville, all the way to Mt. Juliet and Murfreesboro.
Immediately across from the farm store and packaging facility is a historic home—the one that Phil was born and raised in. He pointed out the four front-facing windows and talked about how it was originally log cabin construction. As our conversation came to a close he told me how to navigate a way out that winds through the property with huge grassy pastures, immaculately tended fencing and crisp black and silver barns. I passed a few cows taking advantage of the ample trees, each looking easily pleased in their own little cool hammocks of shade.
At The Nashville Food Project, we often dream about a just and sustainable food system, noting that this would require the collective work of many from the work of politicians to farmers to the ordering and recovery practices of restaurants, grocery stores and even to what is featured on individual kitchen tables. The work of PRB and TGF among others reminds us that we can cultivate foods, even animal proteins, in ways that have the potential to be good for the earth, the animals, the producer, and the health of the community.
Want to get your hands on some goodness?
Tennessee Grass Fed products can be ordered online and delivered to your home or convenient drop spot (think East Nashville Brew Works)! If you are up for a short drive (40 minutes from downtown Nashville) you can even visit the farm, book a tour, and snag products from their on-site farm store!
Porter Road Butcher is centrally located on Gallatin Pike and products can also be ordered online for nationwide delivery. Stop by the butcher shop and chat with their crew to get the insider info on the different cuts and their team’s personal favorites!