We recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Executive Director, Melissa Thomas of The Branch of Nashville. The Branch is a community and ministry partner of the ILC serving mainly the international community through food assistance, English classes and job assistance.

In light of recent days, The Branch has had to pivot slightly in their services but also due to the demand. What usually is a 2-day a week food pantry, serving roughly 100 families a week, has doubled in quantity and is now operating 5-days a week. Those numbers are expected to continue climbing as The Branch is able to continue meeting the demand.

The fear for many is palpable and the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus is applicable. Read our interview with Melissa below and learn about how they’re responding to the crisis and ways for you to serve, give and pray.

Tell us about The Branch of Nashville. Who you are and what you do.

Our mission statement is that we’re nourishing, educating and equipping, building a community where everyone can thrive. But right now we’re in a different place. Really it’s about surviving. Usually at The Branch we have a food pantry, English classes and typically we have job assistance but right now the full focus is trying to provide food assistance to families who are in such a place of crisis.

How have you had to pivot your services? How have you adapt to the need?

We’ve been like everyone else. The expiration of our plans is about 12 hours. We’ve moved through so many plans of contingency. But before the pandemic we were serving 100 families a week through food assistance and allowing our families to come once per month. So we were serving upwards of 450 families per month.

About a week after pandemic hit (through the government ordered lock down early March), that very first Tuesday, our demand doubled. We were seeing way more families, shifting to a drive thru system to serve our families more quickly and potentially more safely. We’ve seen since then a 300% increase in the number of families needing food.

And what I’ve seen is a fear that’s almost palpable. Some know us. Some are followers of Jesus and there’s a clam that you see on them. But there are others where this is this real fear. So we feel a great responsibility and privilege to provide and love, from a 6 foot distance.

To be present as Jesus is present.

How are you able to meet the demand right now?

We have always bought our food at a discounted rate from Second Harvest or received donations from other places. Those are still in place. We have not seen that food decrease. We’ve just seen the amount of food coming in double and now we’ll see it triple.

We’ve seen others step forward to help with this process, in storing food and such.

Our greatest challenge has been personnel, getting more volunteers, staffing, more staffing means more hours. More systems needed to be in place to meet the demands. But God is taking care of us.

What are the populations of people you’re seeing so far?

We’ve always seen about a 90% population of internationals. Mixture of people from Antioch area (Middle Tennessee) where we’re located. Most nationalities will come to us.

We’re now seeing the same populations just inflated.

We are seeing more American born. But still serving large amounts of Middle Easterners, Latinos, some Burmese, Nepalis. Pastor Samuel (ILC Resident and Nigerian Pastor) taking food to folks in African congregations.

In those 7 years of your ministry, can you share some stories of people who have come through your ministry and how they’ve been impacted?

I think the thing that is the most impacting to us about specifically about Gabriella (a Venezuelan young mom who came to The Branch years ago, eventually serving as the Childcare Director) is her testimony of how she has never encountered this kind of love and realization of who God was until she has encountered The Branch. This was all brand new and has been a life changer for her. So we saw her grow and mature and become the disciple to speak these same things to others that Jesus teaches and has become a leader in her community. So we are very thankful and proud about how we’ve been able to walk with Gabriella.

There are many others. We’re not quite at that place with them yet but we’re walking the journey.

Like our Kurdish friend who we’ve been through a whole lot with, whole lot of life, whole lot of mess. Yesterday we were at The Branch and we were slammed with need and he was there serving there with us…relationship like this…or like our female friend from Iraq. I walked with her through potential breast cancer…

We don’t see instantaneous results but as we walk with them and explain to them how we do things differently, not in debate, but how we view things differently because of Jesus, who God is.

Like our Iraqi friend, who is very fearful. She has small children. This is very fearful for her. But I tell her I’m not afraid. Would I be afraid if I got the virus? Sure but what is different? I have peace. Jesus walks with me. I wake up every morning and I read his words and those words give me peace and a sense of hope.

So there’s the patience of walking in these relationship where we want people to see Jesus in the good times and the bad times.

We’ve walk with many people for a brief amount of time and some for much longer and we’re just thankful Jesus is making Himself known through a bunch of imperfect people.

Have you been able to minister the gospel during this time and if so how?

That has been the most challenging piece because of language. We’re still in that process of asking, “God how do we do this?”

Yesterday a family came through (trying to limit our exposure to people) and she rolled her window down and she said her and her husband had recently lost their jobs so she just asked us, “can you pray for us?” So it was a beautiful moment when we were able to lay our hands towards her car, this family, and ask that God would meet their needs and reveal Himself as we know that He will.

So we’ve been asking, “Lord, how do we give your Word to these people?” We may never see them again or we’ll be able to see them next week.

So yesterday we were able to hand out a bible verse, “Come to me all you who are burden and heavy laden and I will give you rest” in 3 languages.

We’ve started with that. But if anyone has any ideas or thoughts for how we may provide this hope and message to people in practical ways, please speak up and help us.

At this time how can the community support The Branch?

If you are an international pastor, doing your services online, send me links so we can put those on our Facebook page or possibly our website so we can provide a personal option for people who are coming to get food. So that’s an easy way to make the gospel available in appropriate languages who may not see or hear it in other circumstances.

Additionally, we need volunteers. We are moving to an appointment only system only serving 6 families per hour. We expect those slots to fill up quickly. We may broaden the slots available but we’re going to need volunteers to carry that out. Our purpose in doing that is to lessen the amount of contact but provide the food safely.

All of this is done through www.thebranchofnashville.org to sign up to volunteer or signup for food or find anything you need to get you in with us.

If anyone wants to come and just stand outside and pray for people in their cars, in their own language, that would be wonderful.

Any other creative ways, we’re open to ideas. I would love to have some handmade masks to provide in boxes to use.

Children may want to draw pictures and write little cards, something that’s encouraging that has a verse on it that points to our hope, our living water, that we can put in boxes.

God will use them for His glory.

Do you need interpreters or translators?

We’re trying to put everything we’re providing in multiple languages on our website. So if anyone wants to step forward and help with that, we’ll put you to work.

If a church wants to deliver/donate specific items, do you have a need for these items, especially for international families with food restrictions? Any system in place to collect unique items like this?

We haven’t gotten that far. We have moved away from donating food. We’re NOT taking random donations of food because of all the precautions we’d have to take to get it to families.

But if someone we’re to want to make bags of cookies or candy with them, we would do everything we could to make sure they’re safe. We would probably set it aside for a couple days and give it out to make sure it’s safe afterwards.

We’re trying to get the food out to the multitudes. But we’re open to creative ideas.

How do families get food help?

So if you are a family in need or know of one in need, head to www.thebranchofnashville.org and click on NEED HELP. Right there you can sign up for a window of time to come and pick up a box of food for your family.

The food bank is open:

· Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm

· Saturdays, 10am-2pm

If volunteers begin to step forward and the funding comes in, we may expand those time frames and double our serving stations to meet more demand but this is what we feel we can manage.

How many families per week are you serving?

This week we will serve 240 families by the end of week. Next week we’ll probably serve in the range of 300-350 families.

How about financially? How much do you need to raise to continue meeting the demand?

Well all of this is in addition to what we were doing before the crisis hit. We’re projecting that the crisis need for food will be a 6-month need. We’re expecting that even if the quarantine lifts in May or June, people aren’t going to be going back to work right away.

So the recovery time for families is going to be much longer. So we’re assuming we’ll be into September or October with this need.

And we’re looking to raise $30,000-$50,000 to take care of this additional 6 months of crisis this will be for us.

$10 can feed 2.5 families…a very practical and easy way to help.

If folks want to donate items, give or volunteer, visit www.thebranchofnashville.org.

Questions? Email info@thebranchofnashville.org.

For a downloadable PDF of a list of ways to serve, give and pray at The Branch, CLICK HERE.

To watch and listen to this interview, you can do so HERE.

Follow the The Branch of Nashville on FACEBOOK for continued updates.

Interview with The Branch of Nashville, Executive Director & their Response to Covid-19