More than 600 students from across the city came together this weekend to serve Nashville for the 10th annual MLK Joint Day of Service. Volunteers from Belmont, Fisk, Lipscomb, Meharry, Nashville State, Tennessee State, Trevecca and Vanderbilt honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by completing service projects all over Nashville that addressed food security, community beautification and other community needs.
After gathering at TSU for a kick-off with welcome remarks and an interview with Freedom Rider Dr. Rip Patton, students divided into groups and hit the road to take part in one of the day’s more than 20 service projects.
Opportunities across the city included:
- Working at Feed the Children where volunteers sorted donations and stocked shelves for the Teacher Store, as well as organized and unloaded donations to assist with selling product
- Volunteering at Preston Taylor Ministries to clean the organization’s building and grounds
- Organizing and coding books for children’s libraries at Project Transformation, ensuring that children have level-appropriate books to grow academically
- Helping with a deep clean of kitchen, bathrooms and office spaces at FiftyForward Bordeaux
- Sorting and hanging merchandise at Thriftsmart, as well as doing tasks to increase sales, which further supports the charities Thriftsmart supports
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Students pose for a group photo after volunteering at The Nashville Food Project Weighing, sorting, washing and chopping produce to assemble healthy snacks and put together the 5,000 meals shared weekly from The Nashville Food Project
- Sorting ans packing food donations at Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee
- Writing encouraging cards for incarcerated men, putting together care packages and helping with building maintenance at Tennessee Prison Outreach Ministries
- Helping the Migrant Education Program team take inventory with Conexion Americas
- Working with the Nashville Tree Foundation to plant trees at three Metro Nashville Public Schools
- Cleaning and organizing throughout the Schrader Lane Vine Hill Child Care Center
- Assembling packets of resources and information to give survivors of sexual violence at the Sexual Assault Center
- Engaging in activities with seniors at Knowles Home Assisted Living
- Facilitating science demonstrations throughout the Adventure Science Center
- Cleaning at Alex Green Elementary School
- Socializing with residents at Trevecca Towers
- Planting trees around the campus of Trevecca Urban Farm
- Organizing spaces used in the after school program at Salama Urban Ministries
- Working with Spruce Street Properties to complete projects around their facility
- Putting together classroom hall decor for Black History with Harvest Hands
- Revitalizing the Music Expressions space at the Salvation Army where youth learn to create music and express themselves creatively
Organizing spaces used in the after school program at Salama Urban MinistriesDirector of Service Learning at Belmont Tim Stewart said, “As we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the student sit-ins here in Nashville and our 10th Annual MLK Joint Day of Service, it is great to see so many of today’s students carrying on the dream of making our community and our world a better place! We have not overcome all of the challenges before us yet, but I am hopeful that as a community, we’re headed in the right direction.”
