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2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 98

Sherry
Provider. Leader. Giver.
15 years ago, Sherry was looking for a way to occupy
herself during the winter months. Her job was parttime and seasonal and she wanted to give back to
her community.
“I had a friend, an older lady who got to talking about
how she was volunteering at the [United Ministries]. It
caught my attention, so I started volunteering when I
had the opportunity.”
Ten years later, Sherry is the showrunner of United
Ministries Food Bank, a United Way partner agency
in Robertson County. She does so on an entirely
volunteer basis.
“It’s an opportunity to give back to the community.
And I feel very fortunate with the life I’ve led. I see so
many people who are struggling and it was a good
opportunity to try to help those people that were
in need.”
While Robertson County is a small community, Sherry
says the need is great—and has been more so since
the pandemic.
“Unlike a lot of the other communities that surround
Nashville, we have a lot of poor people that live in our
community. ‘Poor’ meaning they don’t have a lot of
funding: the living poor, the working poor. We have
people that have jobs but are not making enough
money to really support their families in the means
that they would like to and therefore they come to the
food bank to get assistance.”
She says when COVID-19 hit, they saw a huge increase
in need. United Ministries quickly adapted and set up
tables outside, so that anyone in need can drive up to
the building with as little contact as possible. Sherry
says one thing that sticks out to her about Robertson
County is the generosity of its community members.
“When we have a need, we just put out a request and it
seems like people sort of flock to us to try to help.”
United Ministries typically hosts two major food
pantries through Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle
Tennessee each year—in the spring and the fall—
thanks to the support of sponsors. In 2020, the end of
September arrived and no one had offered to sponsor
the pantry, which meant hundreds of neighbors who
were hurting wouldn’t have access to food they were
relying on.
Sherry put an op-ed in the local paper: a battle cry to
her neighbors.
Several individuals stepped forward and said they
would do whatever it took to make sure the pantry took
place. Then Springfield Utilities and the Tennessee
Valley Authority stepped up to help as well. Sherry says
with the corporate support, they were able to use the
money from the individuals to provide holiday meals
and put the corporate dollars toward the pantry that
hundreds of their neighbors were relying on.
“All I’ve got to do is just ask people to step up and
usually they’ll step up,” she says. “With the drivethrough pantry in April, we had over 350 families drive
through so we know that we’re making a connection
with people that need the food.”
Sherry says the need for food always grows around
the holidays.
“I know that there’s a lot of families that sit down for
the holidays and just don’t have the feast that a lot
of us get to have during the holidays. And so for the
last five years now we’ve had at least 200 families
that have been able to have that Thanksgiving meal
and also the Christmas meal. We’ve been trying to put
together ways of helping them have a more normal life,
a more enjoyable life.”
United Ministries Food Bank