Leslie DiNella’s smile is contagious.
As soon as Leslie steps foot in the kitchen, she is ready to help. She has been volunteering at The Nashville Food Project since 2014, and has since become an integral member of both the tight-knit community in our satellite kitchen at St. Luke’s Community House as well as our lively headquarters kitchen.
Leslie shares, “Around 2014 while searching for a volunteer project that I could do with my teenagers around the holidays, I happened on The Nashville Food Project and immediately felt embraced by everyone at the Woodmont location. The mission of growing and cooking healthful food immediately resonated (as I love cooking and eating good food myself!), but I also appreciated that I always met interesting people, was actually being well-utilized as a volunteer, and it was reliably just a joyful place to be!”
“When plans were underway for the California kitchen, I decided to try St. Luke’s since we were all going to have to move and once again I felt like I had landed in a community that was so happily passionate and I am still thrilled to be a part of that.”
Leslie has stepped up into a leadership role as part of a Cook Team at our headquarters kitchen in addition to a prep volunteer at St. Luke’s. From helping us with roasting veggies to making mummy hot dogs, Leslie is always uplifting everyone in our spaces and leading by her example.
Apart from volunteering, Leslie is a talented cellist, playing with the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra (“Shameless plug,” she says, “Free concerts! See nashvillephilharmonic.org”). “Otherwise,” she says, her time is spent “playing tennis, walking my sweet dog (Olive), traveling with my also-sweet husband (Tom), reading, cooking, volunteering at Norman Binkley Elementary, and waiting for those teenagers-now-young-adults to answer my texts.”
Leslie's passion for good food impacts not only the people she's cooking for, but the people she's cooking with. Anyone who has had the privilege of chopping fruit or making salads with her over the last eight years already knows about her infectious enthusiasm! We’re grateful that after all this time, she’s still making our kitchen a more joyful place to be.