The Branch of Nashville

The food pantry is open 4 hours per day/5 days per week free of charge to anyone with need. Clients complete registration online and schedule an appointment for drive up service. Each household can receive food one time per month. 300 appointments are scheduled per week with slots fully booked three weeks in advance. The Branch is a community partner for second harvest of middle Tennessee, facilitating access to food for those who experience food insecurity. The food distributed is largely donated by second harvest, area retail stores, churches and individuals. The Branch distributed 14,482 carts totaling 1,349,239 lbs of food to 12,376 unique people in 2022. The pantry was staffed with one full-time employee, two part-time employees, and approximately 3950 volunteers.

Many afghan refugees have been resettled in The Nashville area starting in The fall of 2021. When The Branch discovered in december of 2021 that these refugees were not getting enough food, we started a one-year project to purchase and deliver culturally appropriate food to these people. The afghan welcome project had funds left at The end of 2022 to continue into 2023 as crisis care. In collaboration with Tennessee resettlement aid, who is paying for food purchased, The Branch is providing and paying for a staff person to continue deliveries 2023 to not only afghan refugees, but nepali and other refugees as needs are discovered.

The english language learning program hosted 178 students from around 30 different countries in 2022. Our students came mostly from The middle Tennessee areaspecifically davidson, rutherford, wilson, and williamson county, but we also hosted a small number of students with Nashville connections in other states and countries. The 20 classes - led by one full time english director/full-time teacher, eight part-time teachers, and one assistant - were available online, in-person or hybrid, day and night. Students studied in levels 0-5 plus advanced, and we offered free reading tutorials for pre-literacy students. Cambridge university's ventures curriculum was utilized. Classes were held for 40 weeks, averaging about 130 hours of instruction per student. In addition to our traditional classes, we offered optional in-person life skills simulations including medical appointments, job interviews, and parent teacher conferences in conjunction with belmont university staff and education and ell students. Our students invested about $4 per hour in their english education, and we offered scholarships to our Branch volunteers or staff members. Financial partners included new song church, southpointe community church, and dollar general literacy foundation.