By Armani Dill, Communications Intern
In the world of communications, knowing your organization inside out is crucial to telling its story. As a communications intern for The Nashville Food Project I have enjoyed telling our stories, but more importantly, I enjoyed having the privilege to learn by experiencing them myself. The Nashville Food Project’s mission is to bring people together to grow, cook, and share nourishing food, with goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in our city. While the mission is centered around food, it is facilitated by and for people. The dual-pronged focus is clear and tangible in every branch of our organization, and whether you’re here for a couple hours or a couple months, the love and dedication to the mission and our community is palpable and contagious.
From the moment she gave me the tour my wonderful supervisor, and The Nashville Food Project’s Communications Manager, Mary Kate wanted me to share in every part of what makes The Nashville Food Project different from most food-centered organizations. Rather than tackle food insecurity on an individual level like a food bank, The Nashville Food Project uses a business-to-business model where we share food and spaces within the community so that everyone can participate and partake in the fruits of their labor, including myself this summer. During my time here I have seen the growth of fruits and vegetables I didn’t even know existed, and watched our staff, volunteers and community members grow them to eat right off the vine, share with family or mass produce them to fill community needs. I have helped prepare and cook strawberry applesauce made from scratch and witnessed the joy and curiosity of local kids volunteering, learning how it was made with pounds of recovered fruits and how they can conserve food to make their own unique recipes at home. I even had the opportunity to shadow one of our drivers on a distribution run where we shared our contributions (hearty, home-cooked meals) to their community-building and poverty-disrupting causes. The one thing that stood out no matter where I worked within the Food Project was that the people we have on board don’t just treat the organization as a job. Almost everyone who I spoke with came for the mission and stayed for the community, and it’s safe to say that I will be doing the same.
Working at the Food Project has taught me a little something about everything. As someone interested in pursuing a career in the nonprofit sector, one of my most valuable takeaways was seeing how connected and varied the nonprofit network is in Nashville. There are so many parts of the web with different functions and specialized missions. It was so insightful to see how each one impacts the greater health of the city in some way, whether it’s physical, social, or economic. Every part of the web is valuable and at some level everyone needs to eat, which is the humanizing common factor we shape our mission around.
Sharing in the growth and development of this organization and this city has been eye-opening to me and also provided another lens for understanding how communities can interact with each other. I’ve always looked at the nonprofit sector as a service sector where businesses and organizations use their resources and support to help those who can not always do for themselves. While service is beautiful in volunteering, giving blood or donating clothes, through my time at The Nashville Food Project I’ve seen that they have a different approach to community organizing: partnership. In true partnership with the community, we don’t assume the needs of others — instead we get curious and ask questions, always looking to learn more about who we are working with, because we aren’t just giving to them, we are benefiting from them as well. We see our work as a shared endeavor with our community so that their input and their voices are heard, especially when it comes to the processes being put in place to help them. The Nashville Food Project has shown me the value of autonomy and mutual respect not just in the nonprofit sector but in every aspect of how we interact with each other.
All in all, I have deeply enjoyed all the time I have spent during this internship. I have had the opportunity to make so many great friends, hone and sharpen my writing skills, and take part in unique experiences that I would never have done otherwise. One piece of advice I would give to anyone in Nashville or in any community would be to get involved. See what’s around you and don’t be afraid to try something new, The Nashville Food Project is a great place to start! Thank you so much to The Nashville Food Project, thank you to all the friends I made along the way, and special thanks to Mary Kate for choosing to hire me (you slay). I’ll be back soon to volunteer!