Family & Community Services

Our Community Engagement team is a conduit for community voice, and ensures our neighbors’ most pressing needs are identified and addressed. Our Resident Council promotes a continuous feedback loop between the people we serve and the programs and resources in our community.

Our Food Security team runs the busiest food bank in Nashville, a place where many people connect for the first time with various resources at Martha O’Bryan Center. Through Counseling and Pastoral Care, we stabilize and strengthen our families by promoting mental health and spiritual wellness.

Measuring Our Impact:

• The #1 busiest food bank in Nashville, serving 3,546 food boxes in fiscal year 2022.
• We performed 483 health & wellness consultations the same year.
• Provided $291,307 in rental assistance and other emergency household expenses in 2022.

Food Security

Food Bank – Martha O’Bryan Center has a Second Harvest food bank onsite to serve the community in routine and emergency food need situations. Our Food Bank hours are: Monday – Friday | 9:00am to 2:00pm.

Senior Food Boxes – Martha O’Bryan Center is a distribution site for the CSFP boxes for senior citizens. 

Meals on Wheels – The center distributes nutrition boxes to senior citizens in the East Nashville area weekly.

Counseling: Supporting Families in Need

Our Family Support Team is often the first place community members turn when in crisis, on the brink of eviction, without access to electricity, or without food. We provide resources such as access to legal support, bus passes, and emergency food boxes. We provide therapeutic counseling for individuals and families experiencing trauma, with licensed therapists and social workers available during all operating hours and embedded in many programs.

Chaplain and Pastoral Care

Collaborative with our Family Support Team, our full-time Youth and Family Chaplain provides a variety of Pastoral Care services, helping community members build assets and advocacy. Our Chaplain provided routine pastoral care to those struggling to overcome the effects of poverty, as well as though experiencing grief and loss.  Each week our Chaplain offers weekly bible studies, spiritual and mental counseling, self-care programs, and youth ministry.