This story was originally published in the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters. The story is part of the Nashville Banner’s ZIP Code Project. The yearlong community engagement effort assigns Banner staffers to various ZIP codes across the city, where they spend significant time listening to residents and elevating stories directly from the community.
In September, Metro Social Services held a first of its kind food pop-up in North Nashville at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church.
Instead of asking people to come to their Donelson office for a food giveaway, they took 300 boxes of basic pantry items provided by Second Harvest Food Bank directly into a neighborhood that experiences severe lack of access to affordable and healthy food.
The event began at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. Around 6 a.m., people in need began lining up. By 9:15 a.m., all of the boxes were gone.