by Bailey Burnett | Mar 4, 2020 | News Slider, Student Spotlight
Lipscomb students come together with other volunteers Thursday evenings to participate in Feeding the Hungry at St. John’s United Methodist Church. This weekly event provides a hot meal as well as clothing and other necessities to anyone in the community in need. “We do the food pantry and the clothes closet,” said Sandra Griggs, St. John’s United Methodist Church pastor and wife of Alan Griggs, associate professor of communication and journalism. Students portion salads, wash dishes, serve the food, clean the tables and do anything they can to help the other service members, according to the pastor. St. John’s is open from 3 to 5:30 p.m. every Thursday, and anyone is welcome to come to the clothes closet and get a free meal. Around 7 p.m. the volunteers begin cleaning up. Both the food pantry and clothes closet are supplied by a variety of donors. “Deodorant, soap, clothes or leftover food. This stuff is all donated,” said Sandra Griggs. St. John’s Methodist Church has been feeding the community every week for close to 20 years and has plans to continue. “We have all sorts of people come to serve. We have newcomers, church members, and people from all different churches,” she said. “We would love any help we can get for these events. We have high school students that need to do community service, college students, and people from the community. Teenagers can come as long as they have a parent with them.” As a part of Lipscomb’s emphasis on service-learning, students from the university have become regular helpers at St. John’s. “We have Lipscomb students come at least...
by Anna McClure | Mar 1, 2015 | News Slider
Meals 2 Heal offers students the opportunity to learn about nutrition and culinary skills while connecting with members of the community as they prepare nourishing meals for cancer patients. Based out of the Calvary United Methodist Church in Green Hills, Meals 2 Heal seeks to prepare and deliver a week’s worth of meals, free of charge, to cancer patients in Davidson and Williamson County. “Although we’re serving meals to people who are currently going through active cancer treatment, it’s not just the meals that are important, it’s the love and the support that we give them — it’s the love that we teach the people in the kitchen,” volunteer coordinator Robin Mizaur said. Meals 2 Heal is a branch of The Heimerdinger Foundation, which was founded following the death of Mike Heimerdinger who lost his battle with cancer in September of 2011. It was during his treatment that the Heimerdinger’s were exposed to the whole-body approach of using nutrition, supplements and alternative treatments along with Chemotherapy. The Heimerdinger Foundation was formed to promote healthier lifestyles and help raise awareness about cancer treatment options. “It’s not just about the food; we’re also hoping that people will make healthy lifestyle changes,” Mizaur said. Founder Kathie Heimerdinger works alongside the volunteers in the kitchen each week and says that each person who contributes to the preparation is an integral part of the process. “I’m just so grateful that we’re here and blessed with the people that walk through our doors and help us produce these unbelievable meals — from our chef to the mentor chefs to the teen volunteers,” Heimerdinger said. Heimerdinger modeled...
by Brianna Langley | Mar 29, 2014 | Opinion
The Driest Place in the World (originally published on Feb. 27) From the snowcapped peaks of Torres del Paine, the Chilean Global Learning class of 2014 journeyed straight up to the north of Chile, and in less than a week, we were in the driest place in the world: the Atacama Desert. The best way I can think of to describe to you what sort of adventures the Atacama holds is to simply take you through what we experienced while we were there, step by step. What I first noticed about the Chilean desert is that it is a place with almost as much topographic diversity and variety as the country of Chile itself. In some areas of the Atacama, all you can see is brown; brown and flat and complete desolation of life (or anything terribly interesting to look at for that matter). In other areas, little bits of plant manage to sprout up in seemingly spontaneous locations until you finally reach the actual oasis, where green is always greener. These are the rare jewels of the desert where exotic plants and thirsty, bright flowers flourish healthily in between the sweetest little villages that provide homes to the human population of the Atacama. Then there are the mountains and volcanoes; beautifully crafted monstrous sculptures that loom in every horizon. The two desert valleys we were privileged to visit during this particular visit to the Atacama were Death Valley and Moon Valley. Both valleys were expansive and had rolling dirt mountains that looked like a frozen sea of sandy brown waves. (Although I’ve never had the opportunity to travel...
by Janice Ng | Jan 15, 2014 | News Slider
Service and change is the focus for the Lipscomb community as students and faculty remember the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Lipscomb’s multicultural organization Kappa Iota Theta will host “Change for Change!,” a weeklong change drive. Students can bring their extra change to the student center front desk to help purchase school supplies for the Youth Life Learning Center. “The Change for Change drive is a great example of how small change can add up and make such a big difference,” said Elizabeth Hayes, Intercultural Engagement and Development administrative assistant. “We want students to remember that sometimes, it’s the small deeds that are truly impactful.” Students from Lipscomb, Belmont, Fisk, Vanderbilt, Tennessee State and Trevecca will come together at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, in Tennessee State University’s Kean Hall to kick off the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Students will have several opportunities to choose from, including helping to paint McKissack Middle School, sorting food at Second Harvest Food Bank, painting a mural at Hadley Park Community Center, sorting medical supplies at Project C.U.R.E. and helping the Christian Women’s Job Corps of Middle Tennessee move to their new location. “The MLK Day of Service is a significant event in that it’s one of the only times in which all the universities come together, and it’s really exciting to see that vision that MLK had of serving, that everybody can serve,” SALT program coordinator Cara Harris said. “And I think just the way [students] take some time to come together and learn about why they’re doing it, that’s what makes it a unique service opportunity for Lipscomb...
by Brianna Langley | Sep 13, 2013 | News Slider
Lipscomb students learned of different ways to serve locally on Thursday with this year’s annual Local Service Fair. Event coordinator Cara Harris explained that during this time of year, Lipscomb usually invites about 250 partners and organizations to come be represented at the Service Fair. Of those invited, usually about 50 come, including the Salvation Army. “It really helps the people in the Nashville area,” says Salvation Army representative Misty Ratcliff, “I mean, there are so many great organizations here, and even if students don’t volunteer with us, there’s still a ton of organizations to get involved with.” The Service Fair offered a wide range of opportunities, from helping out senior citizens to serving the homeless. “It’s a wonderful blessing to be given the opportunity to come out to invite Lipscomb students to help us out,” said Nashville Inner City Ministry representative Stacey Dixon. Not only does the annual Service Fair offer students chances to perform community service, but it also helps students learn more about what’s going on Nashville outside of Lipscomb’s campus. “We find that a lot of students don’t necessarily know what’s going on in Nashville and don’t know the issues in Nashville,” Harris said. “It’s been great,” said Lipscomb freshman Zack Eccleston, “I’ve met a lot of people who have given me a lot of opportunities to get out in Nashville and help serve, which is great for SALT and just for the Christian desire to go out and...
