From Backyard Gardens to Nashville Tables

Somewhere in Nashville this week, a very good tomato is going to get thrown away.

Kayla Birdsong is trying to change that.

She runs Fresh Food Connect. She was in Nashville for a few days and spent one of her mornings walking our aisles at The Store at our Centennial location.

I hadn't heard of them until last week. My friend Tim Connors put us in the same room at his conference, which is the only reason any of this is happening.

Here's the idea.

Something like one in four American households grows food. Backyard tomatoes. A few pepper plants. A fig tree nobody planned for.

Kayla's team built an app that lets those gardeners say, "I've got extra this week," and connects that food with a local organization that can get it to families.

Denver in 2016. Twenty states now. Nashville, hopefully, soon.

I'll be honest, I did not expect to get excited about an app.

But 98% of the people who shop with us choose fresh fruits and vegetables, and produce is one thing we can never have enough of.

And there is a whole city of gardeners out there with more zucchini than any family should reasonably be asked to eat.

Instead of that food going to waste, it could come to The Store. And then it becomes dinner for a senior, a veteran, a kid down the street.

I love ideas like this because they remind me that sometimes the resources we need are already here. We just need a better way to connect them.

I'm really glad Kayla reached out to us.

Kayla, we can't wait for you to get here. You have at least one proud partner already waiting.