Four North Nashville residents receive $28,000 for arts, food and transportation projects

A total of $28,000 was doled out to a North Nashville yoga studio, artist residency, school transportation company and program to help feed kids.

The goal of the funding is to help boost and expand the work these residents are already doing in the community.

The businesses are the first recipients of money from the 37208 Fund, a private grant-making project that launched in October.

The fund was one of several recommendations from a Metro Council report that set out to examine the challenges facing North Nashville — many of which were traced back to poverty. Census data from 2019 shows the poverty rate in that ZIP code is more than double the average for the rest of the region.

The idea for the fund stemmed from the question: How much more good could community members accomplish if they weren’t worried about fundraising?

InnerG Juice & Yoga founder Nielah Burnett says she plans to use her chunk of the money to help subsidize a juice program for school kids.

Resident Travonda Brown also hopes to help provide healthy snacks for neighborhood kids, and plans to use the funds to stock up on fruit and vegetable options.

Jalesa Howard of Passion Transportation Services helps take unhoused and foster kids to school. She plans to use the money to buy another van so she can reach more kids.

Additional funding will be invested in the McGruder Center’s art program to give five artists a 10-day residency, which will culminate in an art show.

Initial money for the 37208 Fund was provided by the Healing Trust and the Frist Foundation. Corner to Corner, a North Nashville-centered organization, is managing and distributing the fund.