Board of Directors​
Matt Breedlove - Chair - Nissan​
Brandon Doyle - Treasurer - Pinnacle Financial Partners
Angela Howard Murphy - Secretary - Lawyers Land & Title

​              Michelle Burke - Siegel High School

R. David Raby - Retired, Reliant Realty
Benjamin Bright - HCA
Mary Littleton - Accurate Mortgage

Deb Thompson - Retired, State Farm

LaShan Mathews Dixon - TN Dept. of Health, Mrs. United States​

​Ladawna Parham - CEO

​Norman Hanks - COO

Interested in being apart of our Board?

Our Mission

Nourish Food Bank exists to feed families, fuel hope and nourish our families and communities through compassionate service, supportive programs, and partnerships that create a network of care. 

The Nourish Food Bank has been working to end hunger and build up a community response to food insecurity for nearly 40 years - first as the Smyrna-La Vergne Food Bank and now, as we've grown, as Nourish Food Bank, with an additional location in Murfreesboro.
Last year alone, we provided more than 750,000 worth of meals to families in economic and food crisis across our service communities. On average we serve around 1500 families per month.

Each client receives a grocery cart full of food consisting of perishable and non-perishable items such as milk, eggs, bread, meat, cheese, baby food and diapers, canned and fresh fruits and vegetables, and even pastries and snacks. We also provide personal care items like shampoo, toothpaste, adult sanitary products and more. We partner to address community emergencies and partner needs.
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Hunger and food insecurity are often not the only challenges our clients face. Many of our clients lack the skills, or education necessary to gain or retain employment, and many of those employed work for wages far below sustainability levels for their families. We often refer our clients to
GED, ESL, and adult reading classes, along with referrals to financial counseling, utilities, and rental assistance, insurance access, and other community-based resources. Our goal is to reduce the number of families needing emergency food by working together with other agencies to provide the education, skill sets, and supportive resources needed to help transition our clients out of the cycle of poverty and into independence and sustainability.

Our collaborative endeavors are an essential part of our organizational structure. The direct food distribution to hungry individuals and families is our backbone and at the root of everything we do. However, we also recognize that there are many ways that the hungry seek help and not all of those may be walking through our doors. Understanding this, we’ve sought out collaborations that allow us to share food and resources with like-minded entities to reach a broader base of need. Examples of this include our work with the Atlas Program of Rutherford County Schools, through which we distribute backpack kits monthly to homeless youth to provide weekend take-home food supplies; Doors of Hope, where we have provided food to women in transitional living and support programming; Habitat for Humanity, where we have helped stock the pantries of new homeowners through that agency; additional food pantries and support programs across the region with which we've shared food to assist their families in need; Endure Athletics, helping to immediately access food for families living in hotels and also to build a structure for onsite distribution at hotels for homeless children; and many others from veterans outreach groups to domestic violence centers providing in-shelter meals to women and children. Only by providing these kinds of collaborative approaches to community care can we truly move the needle on hunger.