Throughout its history, the Rotary Club of Nashville has worked hard to serve the needs of the local community. It began partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee in 2002 through a joint holiday campaign called “Feed the Need.”

This campaign, which involves Club members assembling food boxes and delivering them to elderly and disabled members of the community, is now an annual holiday tradition for many of the roughly 600 members of the Club.

“Our partnership with Second Harvest is the cornerstone of our members’ community service. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring the kids and grandkids out and teach tomorrow’s leaders the importance of ‘Service Above Self,’” says Suzanne Buchanan, Executive Director for the Rotary Club of Nashville.

In an effort to give Club members more opportunities to serve throughout the year, the leadership decided to expand its work with Second Harvest. Today a team of volunteers visits our warehouse every month to help assemble healthy packs of food for the BackPack Program. Because many Rotarians are parents and grandparents themselves, serving children comes naturally to them.

In addition to their volunteer service, the Rotary Club of Nashville has contributed more than $500,000 towards ending hunger in Middle Tennessee. Second Harvest will name a volunteer room in its Martin Distribution Center in honor of this significant partnership. Club members look forward to packing many more BackPacks in the Rotary Room.

At Second Harvest, we are so very grateful for our partners at the Rotary Club of Nashville. Thank you so much for going above and beyond to ensure hungry children and families have access to nourishing food!