“When we opened The Store in 2020, we were grateful to be able to help support our neighbors in need through a challenging year, including devastating tornadoes and a global pandemic," Paisley and Williams-Paisley said. "It has always been our goal to expand this effort. We are thrilled to announce that The Store will open a second location with our friends at TriStar Centennial to further serve the larger community.”
"This isn't a food pantry where we hand out boxes of other people's leftovers," The Store CEO Collen Mayer recently told The Tennessean. "Instead, by developing a space into a store — where there are shopping carts and volunteers serve as grocery store employees — we have created a dignified, respectful interaction that hopefully allows someone to feel like they're not in a crisis where they can't get ahead."
The Paisleys have contributed the first $1 million toward the $5 million total needed to fund the construction of the new site, The Tennessean reported.
The words David Sherrod, president and CEO of the SEPC, shared with The Produce News following Williams-Paisley’s address last year ring very true: "The work that they're doing shows us that we all can do something, no matter what stage of life we're in. We all have a responsibility to help and be good stewards.”
