Groups of Interest in Smyrna

Charity begins at home, but should not end there. Thomas Fuller

Smyrna has one of the better small town Food Banks that I have seen. The Smyrna-LaVergne Food Bank (FaceBook Link). They are active and they offer help through simple kindness. With that said, I highly recommend that you take a moment and read about this fine group of people.

Our Mission
We pledge our services to feed as many hungry people in our community as we are able, and to make the residents of Smyrna and La Vergne aware of the need for food assistance by their neighbors.  

Our Work
The Smyrna-La Vergne Food Bank (SLFB) has been working to end hunger and build up a community response to food insecurity for more than 30 years. Last year alone, we provided more than 74,000 meals worth of food products to families in economic and food crisis across our service communities.

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 are the community-based distributor for federal commodities, operate an Emergency Food and Shelter Program, and even provide personal care items like shampoo, toothpaste, adult sanitary products and more.
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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.

The last part where they say "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.". This is the truest meaning of the term 'giving them a hand up'.