One Generation Away aims to end hunger in Middle Tennessee

Franklin-based organization One Generation Away, or OneGen, has a mission of ending hunger and racism through food distributions and love.

“I believe the church’s responsibility is to help the poor,” OneGen founder Chris Whitney said.

“The church has been mandated by God to feed the poor and to care for the widows and orphans.”

Started five years ago, OneGen holds food distribution events around Middle Tennessee. At each event, a 20,000 pound truck filled with food is unloaded by volunteers and organized into stations. Over the course of a few hours, people in need come and go until every item of food is gone. According to OneGen employee Mandy Cole, the organization will hold 30 distributions in five counties.

“We don’t ask anything of our recipients,” Cole said.

“They don’t need to prove how much money they make to receive food. If someone needs food, we give them food.”

On April 29 at 8 a.m., volunteers began unloading 15,000 pounds of perishable and nonperishable food items in the parking lot beside the Williamson County Parks and Recreation soccer field on Columbia Avenue. The distribution event was 10 a.m.-12 p.m., but by 10:30 a.m., the volunteers were breaking down boxes and containers after hundreds of people loaded the food they needed into their cars.

Read more at Williamson Herald.