Last December, Kayla Hall wandered into The Nashville Food Project at the same time as over a hundred other Nashvillians to celebrate the launch of FeedBack Nashville, a citywide initiative to evaluate and reimagine the local food system. It was her first time in the building, and although the main room was packed to the brim, she had a vision for what the space could be. So she asked to see the kitchen.
For the last four years, Kayla has been making her own cold-pressed juices. Her journey with juicing began as a solution to a personal health problem — the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and electrolytes in ginger shots and green juices restored her energy, improved her sleep, and made her feel all-around better than any other health remedies she had tried. Once the habit stuck, it changed her life. And as she shared the healing she had found in juicing with friends and family, she realized it could change the lives of others, too. That’s how The City Juicery, Kayla’s cold-pressed juice business, was born.
Kayla rented prep space at Citizen Kitchens, a local food business incubator, and began selling her juice at local farmers markets. “We were hustling,” she remembers. “Sometimes we were selling at six markets a week, or even a couple of markets in a day.” She was doing it with intentionality, though — it was important to her to show up in every corner of the city. “I wanted to ensure that the juices were easily accessible in the community, so I made a point to go to where the people were,” she explains.
At its core, The City Juicery bridges the gap between nutritious choices and accessibility: a goal shared by The Nashville Food Project. That’s why when Bianca Morton, Chief Culinary Officer of the Food Project, and C.J. Sentell, CEO, met Kayla on that day in December, everyone’s gears started turning. They showed her around the space and learned about her business, and a few weeks later, they were sitting at a table with the leadership of Preston Taylor Ministries, who wanted to arrange a summer work readiness partnership for the high school students in their program. Together, they started dreaming.
When The Nashville Food Project’s headquarters was first built in 2018, it was always a part of the conversation that the building’s beautiful entry space, known affectionately as the Community Dining Room, might eventually function as a cafe. For years, it has served as home to pop-up restaurants (including Tailor), community dinners and celebrations, public conversation panels, and even baby and wedding showers. The goal was always the same: for the space to become a living, breathing example of our mission to bring people together.
So what if it could? The group drew up a pilot plan that leveraged Kayla’s hospitality expertise and product, the Food Project’s facility and catering chops, and Preston Taylor’s workforce development model. The students would work in the cafe under Kayla’s training to make and sell juices, which The Nashville Food Project would supplement with healthy snacks and light lunches. Even better, The City Juicery would have access to the Food Project’s daily donation and procurement drops, which regularly include ready-to-use fruits and vegetables, for their juice production. It was a win-win for everyone.
This June, the vision came to life as a team of students began a few weeks of training before the cafe’s grand opening. Having taught in MNPS for ten years before opening her business, Kayla was well-equipped to show these students the ropes — but she knew that any successful business had to begin with building relationships.
Students with a mentor from Preston Taylor Ministries on the cafe’s opening day.
“The most important thing to me right off the bat was getting to know the kids,” she explains. “I knew that if I was able to understand their learning goals beyond The City Juicery, we could build on those goals to make their work here feel more meaningful.”
Next, Kayla began an intensive training on fruits and vegetables with the students. “Nobody thinks they need it, but then I start with asking them whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable,” she laughs. “That got all of them.”
Tomatoes were just the beginning. Kayla is intimately familiar with the ways that specific foods can solve different health challenges, and in her eyes, that was the most important knowledge to share. She wanted the students to be able to make recommendations to customers who came in with questions about anything from cramping to gut health. She also taught them about how produce changes depending on how you work with it — for example, how bananas become sweeter as they brown or how you should turn pineapples upside down two days before you juice them to extract more liquid. All of these factors affect the flavors of smoothies and juices.
The students were fast learners, and now, they make City Juicery specialties like smoothies and lemonades by themselves. They also open and close the shop, do all the prep work, and sort through the produce — 40% of which is sourced from the Food Project’s excess. When opening day came around, on June 14, the cafe had over 100 guests!
Learning and growing with Kayla and her team of students has been a blast so far — not to mention their smoothies and juices are delicious! It feels great to have our community space full of life. Our hope is that this cafe creates even more opportunities for us to bring people together around tables, over food, and have this space transformed into one that offers hospitality, connection and nourishment.
The City Juicery is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. inside The Nashville Food Project’s headquarters in the Nations, located at 5904 California Avenue. We have a variety of juices, smoothies, hot and cold sandwiches, salads, fruits, and more available. Come say hi while the Preston Taylor students are here until July 19!