For Project Host, every meal is an opportunity to change lives
First Horizon Bank presents the Community Spirit Award.
Nonprofits use a different kind of math. You measure services provided, beds used, and meals served. Higher numbers mean helping more people, but they also show the depth of the need.
For 45 years, Project Host has done the math on addressing food insecurity in Greenville. As the organization has evolved—from a soup kitchen to a culinary training program and community garden, and from providing meals for kids to running a bakery and a food truck—food and empathy have remained the tools of change.
Project Host’s impactful work in the Greenville Community earned the organization the Community Spirit Award. The award honors an outstanding nonprofit leader or organization that serves the community through vital programming and exceptional efforts to collaborate with other community partners.
This past year, Project Host served 35,000 guests in the soup kitchen, 21,000 through its food truck, and 14,000 through its meal distribution program. It is a success in meeting community needs, and yet also proof that the need continues to grow.
“We have these statistics, by the numbers, and it’s a point of pride,” says Tobin Simpson, who has served as Project Host’s CEO since 2020. “When we do our volunteer dinner in February, we talk about how many hours they have donated and the monetary value of it and how many we have fed, and those numbers are people.”
Channeling community spirit
What began as a soup kitchen run by a small inter-church group is now fueled by a staff of eight full-time and two part-time employees. But the heart remains the volunteers who have allowed the organization to grow into a dynamic community resource that meets the needs of a changing community.
Simpson, a professional chef by training, began as a volunteer before coming on full time as a culinary instructor.
The soup kitchen opened on South Academy Street in 1981, serving guests who mostly lived nearby. Beyond nourishment, the focus was serving with empathy and making room at the table for everyone. Today, the soup kitchen serves 120 to 150 guests six days a week.
In 2001, Project Host launched a culinary training program to provide practical job skills to those in need. The program grew in 2006, when the CC Pearce Culinary School opened in a new commercial kitchen space adjacent to the soup kitchen. CC Pearce has graduated 250 students, many of whom have gone on to pursue a culinary career.
The culinary school and the larger kitchen space helped grow Project Host’s Cooking for Kids program, which provides healthy meals to children throughout the Upstate. Culinary students get hands-on cooking experience, and partnerships with organizations including Meals on Wheels have been key to reaching more people. This year, Cooking for Kids served 70,000 meals.
“We would not be where we are without the partnerships and relationships we have in Greenville,” Simpson says.
In 2016, Project Host launched a bakery that has become both another culinary teaching tool and a new income stream for the nonprofit. People can find Project Host bakery items at local spots like Asada, Jasmine Kitchen, and Grateful Brew.
As gentrification has changed the landscape around Project Host’s downtown Greenville location, the organization has adapted to get food to those who need it. Today, the HostMobile, Project Host’s food truck, transports meals to individuals outside the Greenville metro area while also serving as a training tool for the culinary school and as an income stream for Project Host.
At every stage, Project Host’s leadership and board have met challenges with dexterity and creativity, guided by empathy and a belief in the power of a good meal to change lives.
