Cul2vate’s Real Food Box Program Delivers Fresh Food Across Middle Tennessee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cul2vate’s Real Food Box Program Delivers Fresh Food, Restores Hope, and Creates Opportunity Across Middle Tennessee

Since launching in June 2026, the program has provided healthy, locally sourced food to families while creating meaningful workforce opportunities for individuals rebuilding their lives.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Since launching in June 2026, Cul2vate’s Real Food Box Program has been delivering fresh, wholesome food to families and individuals experiencing food insecurity while creating meaningful employment and workforce development opportunities for people rebuilding their lives.

Today, one in six people—and one in seven children—in Middle Tennessee may not know where their next meal is coming from. At Cul2vate, we believe no one should have to choose between paying rent, filling a prescription, or putting wholesome food on the table. The Real Food Box Program was created to help ease that burden by delivering healthy, nutrient-rich food directly to neighbors who need it most.

Each Real Food Box is thoughtfully designed to provide approximately 25 nutritious meals, helping feed a family for5–7 days. Every box includes a Second Harvest Nourish Box, fresh produce grown by Cul2vate, locally sourced beef and porkprovided through partnerships with Green Farms and other Middle Tennessee pork producers, and nutritious pantry staples including rice, pasta, beans, and canned vegetables. Together, these fresh and minimally processed foods provide families with the ingredients needed to prepare healthy, balanced meals at home.

Real Food Boxes are distributed throughout Middle Tennessee to affordable housing communities, family resource centers, recovery and transitional housing programs, and juvenile detention and residential treatment facilities, helping ensure healthy food reaches those who need it most.

What makes the program unique is that the produce is grown, harvested, packed, and delivered by Cul2vators, participants in Cul2vate’s workforce development program who are overcoming barriers such as incarceration, addiction, homelessness, and unemployment. Through meaningful work, mentorship, and hands-on agricultural training, Cul2vators gain valuable job skills while helping feed their neighbors.

“Around here, we believe good food changes lives,” said Joey Lankford, Executive Director of Cul2vate. “When a family has healthy food on the table, it takes a little weight off their shoulders. Kids can focus on being kids, parents can breathe a little easier, and families can sit down together. At the same time, our Cul2vators are finding purpose in their work because they know they’re helping feed someone else. That’s what Cul2vate is all about—Growing Food and Growing People.”

The impact of the Real Food Box Program is already being felt by families across Middle Tennessee.

“I forgot to do my billing and didn’t get paid, which was extremely hard because the boys want to go places, and as you know, everything is expensive. We are laying low until the 15th, when I should get paid, so this food has been a lifesaver. I can’t even begin to tell you how much we are grateful for everything Cul2vate does for us.”

— Foster Mom and Real Food Box recipient

The program is made possible through partnerships with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Green Farms, local agricultural producers, volunteers, churches, businesses, and generous donors who believe everyone deserves access to healthy, wholesome food.

Since its launch, the program has distributed approximately 83 Real Food Boxes each week. Cul2vate plans to expand distribution to100 boxes per week by September 2026, and250 boxes per week during the 2027 growing season, significantly increasing access to nutritious food across the region.

Community members, churches, businesses, and foundations can support the Real Food Box Program by sponsoring Real Food Boxes, underwriting food and packaging costs, volunteering, or making a financial contribution to help expand the program’s reach.

For more information, to sponsor a Real Food Box, or to support Cul2vate’s mission of Growing Food and Growing People, visit www.cul2vate.org.

About Cul2vate

Cul2vate is a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization dedicated to Growing Food and Growing People. Through sustainable agriculture, workforce development, and strategic community partnerships, Cul2vate grows fresh produce that feeds neighbors experiencing food insecurity while providing meaningful employment, mentorship, and life-changing opportunities for individuals overcoming barriers to employment. By combining healthy food with purposeful work, Cul2vate cultivates stronger individuals, healthier families, and more resilient communities.