Martha O'Bryan Center

We like to think hunger is across the ocean, not just across the river.  Hunger is in residence in almost every corner of our city but particularly concentrated in our “belt communities” like lower east Nashville, surrounding our downtown. My office looks out over the parking lot of the Martha O’Bryan Center Food Bank and every day I see people come with hope and wait patiently for peanut butter and macaroni and if they are lucky, milk. Many I recognize as clients or children of the Center. Many you would recognize – the woman who takes your parking ticket, the handyman who replaced ...
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Today I did not drive up 7th Street. I was at a conference near Vanderbilt. As I left the stately old buildings and drove to my next appointment, I saw a somewhat unusual coed. She was dressed in black from head to toe. She was walking with purpose, head up, her sweet brown face lost in thought. The only thing that made her similar to the others on the street was her heavy backpack and her tennis shoes.    But she was familiar to me. It was Halima, one of our star students. Eighteen months ago, she was salutatorian of her high school, an area magnet school.
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