Share our Supper

If you know much about me, you know I love food. I love to eat it, cook it, explore new places to find it, share it, give it, serve it, you name it. I’ve done blog posts on it many times, Instagram photos of it every week or so, write tweets, enter all kinds of contests (and sometimes win), have parties to cook and eat, find new recipes and sign up for email lists and rewards.

Because I do love food so much, it is a great way for me to serve God. He wants us to use the things we enjoy to bring Him joy, too. Like I said in a previous post on this blog, meals are a great time to fellowship with others as well. My mom works in the office at an elementary school, and she comes home with some of the saddest stories. Many kids eat all they can at school in the cafeteria because they know that they probably won’t get another meal until they come back the next day. They’re so hungry and can’t do anything about it. Over longer breaks like weekends and holidays, that’s even longer to go with little to no food. Knowing these personal stories and considering how much this simple aspect of life is so important both mentally and physically, it draws me to feel compassion for them.

Many people, especially younger children, don’t talk about this home situation, so many of us may not even realize that someone close to us may be suffering. Hunger is something very real in every community. Though we live in Nashville, a seemingly “fancy” place to live, there are hungry people around every corner, maybe even on yours.
Here at school, we have an awesome cafeteria with great food and so many options every day. Their health score is posted on the wall as being a 100, and I believe it. As part of complying with health regulations, they are required to dispose of almost every bit of leftover food at the end of the day. Most people don’t know this nor do they realize how much food is left each day. It’s an enormous amount. Imagine how many people this food could help. Well, that’s what a group of students did in recent years. Lipscomb now has a club called Share Our Supper that works with the cafeteria to collect leftover food twice a week to take to the Nashville Food Project. We get the food from the caf, load it in a car and drive to NFP, weigh and record the amounts of food, and that’s it! So simple and so beneficial. The organization takes all the food they receive and redistributes it to other organizations and people in the area who are in need of food.

This organization is located on Hillsboro Pike, a central, easy-to-locate place. They take donations from anyone as well as grow their own food in a garden in behind the building. All they receive is used to benefit those living here in Nashville. Volunteers are always welcome! Their website provides great information about all they do and how you can contact them and get involved. If you would like to be involved with Share Our Supper, contact Sarah Wagner at sjwagner@mail.lipscomb.edu.

Other than the food collection and delivery, we also lead other projects on campus such as the End it with Orange campaign and food drive, where one week we collected canned foods partnering with No Kid Hungry. We also plan to host a dinner for some of the school faculty and cafeteria workers, among other things.