Local Author Inspires Community Involvement

by Bailey Basham, Messenger Intern
When Laura Willis published her book “Finding God in a Bag of Groceries” in 2013, she had no idea that it would have such an impact on community outreach in Sewanee.
Willis, who served as the director of the Community Action Committee (CAC) for 10 years, and editor and publisher of the Sewanee Mountain Messenger for five years, said she decided to write a book because of her experience working with the people who came to receive aid from the CAC.
“My book is really a memoir about two things—poverty and need in Sewanee and my own spiritual journey. People often think that Sewanee is a bunch of well-to-do people, and yet there are families among us who we don’t even recognize as struggling,” said Willis. “We all have a good idea of what urban poverty looks like, but rural poverty is more complex than it looks on TV or in the movies. Rural poverty can be almost invisible. There’s no public park bench for homeless people to sleep on; no soup kitchen with a line wrapping around the block— homeless people in rural communities sleep in their car or hang out in a 24-hour store. They go to places such as the CAC for food. Food insecurity is something both the CAC and Morton Memorial are trying to address because it’s such a big issue here.”
Monteagle Sewanee Rotary members John Noffsinger and John Goodson both said the idea for the Rotary Hunger Walk was born from Willis’ book.
“After retiring and reading ‘Finding God in a Bag of Groceries’ I decided there was something else I wanted to do with my life,” said Noffsinger. “We have 17 percent more children in poverty now than we did before the Great Recession. What can we do to help with that? Now I’ve been involved with the food ministry at Morton for two years, and reading Laura Willis’s book got me more involved with the food ministry at Morton more than anything else.”
Goodson agreed. “Reading Laura’s book motivated me to try to do something to make a difference,” said Goodson.
It was Goodson’s idea originally to begin the Hunger Walk, a 5-mile run/walk along the Sewanee portion of the Mountain Goat Trail to raise awareness about food insecurity on the Mountain, as well as raise money to help the food ministries at the CAC and Morton Memorial United Methodist Church.
“I knew that I had an opportunity to do something to help as president of the Rotary,” said Goodson. “What inspired me most about the book was the theme and title of the book, ‘Finding God in a Bag of Groceries.’ After reading the book, I spoke with Betty Carpenter, director of the CAC, on several occasions to see what the Rotary Club could do. One day the idea just came to me. We need the problem of hunger on the Mountain to be dealt with.”
In 2014, it was estimated that 13.3 percent of the Franklin County population is affected by food insecurity. Roughly one in three children on the Plateau are food insecure. Nine out of 100 senior citizens will live without access to enough food.
“We live in a food desert. Shopping for groceries and finding fresh fruits and vegetables is difficult. A lot of people who are on limited incomes buy groceries at the dollar store, and you’re not going to find anything fresh or healthy there,” said Willis.
Proceeds from Hunger Walk sponsorships and registration fees will go to support the food ministries at the CAC and Morton Memorial.
“For more than 40 years, the CAC has been offering a very important ministry in our community, and the Hunger Walk is a great way to raise awareness and raise money for that,” said Willis.
Willis said, for her, the attention her book has gotten in terms of raising awareness about food insecurity has been a surprise.
“It’s humbling to see that my book has had this sort of impact for people. I wrote it because I wanted to raise awareness about hunger and poverty, so I’m honored that people have read it and been inspired to act,” said Willis. “I’m a person of faith, so I believe that must have been what the purpose of my book was—to help people become more compassionate to those in need.”
The Second Annual Hunger Walk will be Saturday, Sept. 3. To register for the walk or for more information about the cause, visit Facebook.com/SewaneeHungerWalk or thehungerwalk.com.

Morton Memorial Food Ministry Benefits from Hunger Walk

by Bailey Basham, Messenger Intern
Last year, more than 250 donors, sponsors and walkers raised $14,547 to support programs designed to alleviate food insecurities on the Mountain with the Rotary Hunger Walk. Planning for the second Hunger walk continues.
The goal of the Rotary Hunger Walk, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 3, is to bring awareness to the poverty present in the greater Sewanee community and to raise money to support local organizations working to alleviate food insecurity.
Money raised from registration fees, sponsorships and community donations goes to support food ministries led by the Community Action Committee at Otey Parish in Sewanee and the Morton Memorial Food Bank in Monteagle.
“The Food Ministries at Morton Memorial UMC is a food bank that serves more than 12,000 pounds of food to about 100 families in the community every second Saturday of the month,” said John Noffsinger, co-chair of the Rotary Hunger Walk and a member of the Morton food ministry team. “Morton partners with the Chattanooga Area Food Bank (CAFB), which is a member of Feeding America.”
Noffsinger said the money raised by the Hunger Walk greatly benefited the food ministry at Morton.
“With the money raised from the first Hunger Walk, the food distribution team was able to purchase wagons to make it easier to carry food to the cars. We were also able to purchase new freezers, plus a lot more food for distribution.”
Those receiving the aid of the food ministry on those Saturdays are known as Morton’s “Saturday family.”
“On Thursday afternoon before the second Saturday of the month, trucks arrive from the Chattanooga Food Bank with more than 12,000 pounds of food. The unloading and repackaging process is handled by some of our Saturday family members, as well as community members, Rotarians and our church members,” said Noffsinger. “Then on Saturday morning, the process of registering, helping select the foods the participants want and carrying the food to their cars begins. Some months we will help 90 to 100 families, while some months the number can jump to 150 families.”
The food ministry at Morton Memorial United Methodist Church aims to do one thing: help the members of the greater Sewanee community.
“Our goal is to help local families with their food insecurity because the majority of the families in the Grundy and Marion county areas don’t have enough food to get through the month. We provide them with supplemental food once a month,” said Amy Wilson, Director of the Food Ministry at Morton.
Wilson works on a volunteer basis for the food ministry, along with 40 others. Roughly 10 percent of the volunteers at Morton are also recipients of aid from the food ministry.
On average, the food ministry serves 110 families a month, which represents a minimum of 320 adults and children.
Wilson, who has been helping with the food ministry since 2013, is in charge of ordering food from the Chattanooga area food bank and making sure distribution of the food to families goes smoothly.
“I want to make sure I have enough for the families to have a certain number of meals and to make sure we have our volunteers there that day,” said Wilson. “I’m just there to make sure it gets done, and with the volunteers, it kind of runs itself since we’ve been doing it for so many years now.”
Wilson has been helping with the Morton food ministry for three years, but even before that, she was working to help those in her community.
“There was a food pantry at Morton before, and I had volunteered there for a couple of years. That model went away, and when that happened, I approached the church with a different model. The model we went with is called choice party, and it’s like a little grocery store,” said Wilson. “Instead of prepackaging food boxes, people get to choose what they want. If they don’t want a certain thing, they don’t have to take it and that eliminates waste.”
Wilson said that she and the rest of the Morton volunteers recognized that many of the community members receiving food from the ministry had health issues that would be exacerbated by unhealthy foods. Thanks to help from the CAFB, healthy foods are an option for those coming to get food from the ministry.
“Our model is based on whole grains, fruits, vegetables and proteins. We’re doing a pilot program with Chattanooga Food Bank now called Produce Empowerment Program (PEP), and that ensures that we receive 3,500 extra pounds of fresh produce every month,” said Wilson. “We choose to emphasize fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy for the foods we offer. By providing fresh produce and other nutritious foods that our clients might not purchase at the grocery store because of the cost, we are also providing them the opportunity to try new foods like lentils, coconut milk and rutabagas. For some items, we cook samples that the clients can try or provide recipes.”
For Wilson, the best part about being involved with the food ministry is knowing she is making a difference for her neighbors and family.
“My favorite part is helping my family and helping the people that I know in trying to do something good and positive. I am from here, and my family is from Grundy County. I have family members who come to the food pantry, and knowing that I am literally helping my own family in addition to helping my neighbors— it’s amazing,” said Wilson.
The Second Annual Rotary Hunger Walk will be Saturday, Sep. 3. For more information, visit Facebook.com/SewaneeHungerWalk.

Enjoy Beautiful Music This Weekend

Under the direction of Gary Sturgis, the Sewanee Chorale will perform its annual Christmas concert at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 13, in All Saints’ Chapel. Ruth Cobb will accompany the chorale.

Students from voice teacher  Susan Rupert’s studio will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 12, in St. Luke’s Chapel for the traditional end-of-semester Big Band/Broadway-fest. Joining them will be the Jazz Trio, which features Noel Workman, Bob Burns and Garry Collins.  

A program of  favorites such as “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” “Fever,” “Lullaby of Broadway” and “The Lamp is Low” will lift your spirits and provide a much-needed break to relax and enjoy some of music’s most popular and enduring “oldies.”  

Morton Memorial United Methodist Church is hosting its fourth annual “Mountain Music Christmas” program at 5:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 13. The choir will sing beautiful Southern spirituals and Appalachian carols to celebrate the music of our mountain, including music of John Jacob Niles, Southern Harmony and Scottish carols. 

Special guests Amanda Combs and Ryan Combs are siblings from Hazard, Ky., who blend family musical tradition with their bluegrass and gospel roots to create heartfelt, down-to-earth music. 

Storyteller Susan Ramsay and Cricket and Snail will be back by popular demand, and will be joined by local traditional musicians. All are welcome to join in this celebration.

Hunger Walk to Support Morton Memorial & CAC on Saturday

All Events Still Planned, Rain or Shine

Monteagle Sewanee Rotary, in partnership with the Community Action Committee of Sewanee, Morton Memorial United Methodist Church of Monteagle and the Mountain Goat Trail, is sponsoring the first annual Hunger Walk. On Saturday, April 25, the walk will begin at the Sewanee Angel Park; registration is at 9 a.m., with the walk beginning at 10 a.m. 

Participants will walk to Pearls Café on the Mountain Goat Trail and return to Otey Parish, a total of five miles. The Hunger Walk will end at Claiborne Parish House, where a complimentary lunch will be served .

“Rotary wants to help raise awareness of poverty and hunger in our communities. That’s why we’re so excited about this event,” said John Goodson, president of Monteagle Sewanee Rotary. “We hope everyone will come out and join us.” 

Registration for the event is $10 per person. Register or find more information online at <www.thehungerwalk.com> or call (931) 968-1127.

One Family’s Experience of Food Insecurity

by Amanda Diamond, Special to the Messenger

This winter I noticed that one of our “Saturday Family” regulars was not present for the food day in December. I was still at the church after the distribution time when I was told there was someone who wanted to see me. 

I walked outside and saw the members from our “Saturday Family” waiting for me. I immediately told them that I had missed them and wondered if they were okay. 

The father interrupted me to say that they were fine, in fact, they were actually better than fine. They wanted to thank us for the ministry that we had provided to them and to others in the area. 

This family of five was comprised of a mom who worked in a salaried position in our community. Her husband was out of work because he had been hurt on the job. They were raising three children ranging in age from middle school to high school. The family had been navigating the father’s disability and workman’s compensation claims for many months, which is what brought them to our food program. 

On this day in December, the family returned to the Morton Food Ministry. They had come to thank the community for all that they had received, but also to give back. In a month when Christmas presents are being purchased and utility costs rise, this family handed me a check for a large sum of money. They said “This is to go for another family who is in need.” They hugged me and thanked me again for the ways the healthy, sustainable food made a difference for them in the months when they were insecure about where their meals would come from. 

Our “Saturday Families” aren’t just takers. They are givers: from the volunteer hours they offer in helping to unload and distribute the food, to the ways they serve on the Food Leadership Team, to donating funds to help cover the cost of purchasing freezers and shelving. 

The Food Ministry at Morton Memorial UMC is an extended family where persons are giving and receiving together.

The Rev. Amanda Diamond is the pastor at Morton Memorial United Methodist Church in Monteagle, which has a feeding program on the first Saturday of each month.

Hunger Walk to Benefit Area Food Banks

The Monteagle Sewanee Rotary Club will host the First Annual Hunger Walk benefiting both the Sewanee-based Community Action Committee (CAC) and Monteagle-based Morton Memorial Food Pantry on Saturday, April 25.
“Morton distributes 8,000 pounds of food a month on the Mountain, and CAC distributes another 1,000 pounds a month. Rotary wants to help raise awareness of poverty and hunger in our communities. That’s why we’re so excited about this event,” said John Goodson, president of Monteagle Sewanee Rotary. “We hope everyone will come out and join us.”
Walkers will register at 9 a.m. in Sewanee at the Sewanee Angel Park. The Hunger Walk will begin at 10 a.m. with walkers traveling from Sewanee’s Angel Park onto the Mountain Goat Trail and walking to Pearls Café and returning to Otey Parish, a total of five miles. The Hunger Walk will end at Otey Parish, where a complimentary lunch will be served to all registrants.
Registration is $10 in advance or on the morning of The Hunger Walk. Interested participants can register and find more information online at <www.thehungerwalk.com> or on Facebook at <facebook.com/sewanee hungerwalk> or by calling 968-1127.

Camp Discover Completes Third Year, Children Learn about Community

For two weeks in June, Camp Discover students explored their community, learned about the stories and music of the area, read books about community and recorded their thoughts in special camp journals. More than 80 children from Tracy Elementary and the surrounding area completed their camp experience on Friday, June 13, with a final celebration and barbecue lunch at the South Cumberland State Park Visitor’s Center that included community and family members.

This marked the third year of Camp Discover, based at Tracy Elementary School. The community-based partnership is a project led by members of the Grundy County community in partnership with Scholastic, Yale Child Study Center and Sewanee. Local organizations also generously contribute to make it possible for Camp Discover to provide its rich program, including Tracy City Elementary, the Friends of the South Cumberland, Morton Memorial Methodist Church and Mountain TOP.

The Camp’s head teacher, Sherry Guyear, working with Tracy Elementary teacher Jan Roberts, brought together a remarkable team of more than 30 local, talented volunteers. Former Tracy City Principal Russell Ladd returned to lead older campers this year. Naturalist Mary Priestley shared her talent and time, working with children on nature journals. The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders spent time on the Fiery Gizzard trail and learning about the trees, wildflowers and water creatures of the area. 

Local musicians Cameron, Ruth and Sophie Swallow, Betty Carpenter and Barbara Prunty sang traditional Appalachian songs and helped children create their own music. Campers enjoyed learning folk songs and singing, dancing and making musical instruments.

University art professor Pradip Malde and a number of University and St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School students continued their ongoing work helping campers tell their stories through photography. Digital cameras were donated for all campers to use, recording their observations on field trips to Grundy County attractions.

These field trips were connected to Camp Discover’s theme of community. Campers visited the Cowan Railroad Museum; St. Mary’s Convent and Gardens; the Highlander Folk School; the birthplace of the Tennessee Walking Horse in Pelham, where they listened to stories from Miss Janie Belle; Beersheba Springs, where they heard the music and stories of Big Don Hill and saw one of the old homes; and Coolidge Park in Chattanooga, where they rode the carousel with scenes painted by local artist Lisa Turner.

On days in Tracy, campers read a variety of books together and enjoyed projects related to the literature, to the local region and to the themes of friends, family and community. 

The Discover Together Partnership runs both Camp Discover and the Discover Together Family Co-op for children birth-5 and their families. For more information contact Emily Partin by email, <epartin1@k12tn.net>.

Holiday Music Across the Plateau

There are many special music events on the Mountain this week. All events are free and open to the public.

The second annual Jazz Night featuring the University Student Jazz Band and the Student Jazz Quartet, led by Prakash Wright, will be at 7 p.m., today (Friday), Dec. 7, at the Ayres Multi-Cultural Center.

Linda Heck will perform 8–10 p.m., today, Dec. 7, at Stirling’s. Heck is a songwriter, singer, guitar player, producer, and Sewanee local. 

The Sewanee Chorale is hosting a community sing-a-long of Handel’s “Messiah” at 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 8, in All Saints Chapel. People may sing with the Chorale or come be part of the audience. To print the public domain music, go to <http://tinyurl.com/akzratb>. 

Sewanee Praise, the University’s gospel choir, will have its fall concert at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 9, in St. Luke’s Chapel. 

Morton Memorial United Methodist Church is hosting a “Mountain Christmas” at 7 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 9. There will be arrangements of Appalachian Christmas carols. Joining the choir will be the Good Ol’ Boys Bluegrass Band, Regina Rourk Childress and April Minkler, Cricket & Snail and storytellers Jette Halliday, Diana Hague and Susan Ramsay. Morton Memorial is located at 330 Main St., Monteagle. 

The St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School Chorus will perform at 12:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 10, for the Sewanee Women’s Club’s Christmas luncheon at the DuBose Conference Center in Monteagle. 

Sewanee’s A Cappella Groups, Cadence and Cambiata, will present their winter concert at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 11, at Guerry Auditorium. Following the concert, there will be a reception in the McGriff Alumni House.

St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School middle and upper school choruses, chamber ensemble and stage band will present a holiday concert at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 12, in McCrory Hall for the Performing Arts on the SAS campus.

Finally, there is live music at a number of area restaurants this weekend, including Pearl’s Foggy Mountain Café, the Smoke House and Dave’s Modern Tavern. Check with these venues for details.