Ashley Swann felt an unmistakable pull to help children—but at first, she wasn’t sure what that calling meant. Over the course of two months in early 2017, a series of events brought clarity to the Cookeville native and community activist, ultimately leading her to launch Food to the Rescue.
It began when a local teacher shared a heartbreaking reality: some students had little to no food when they returned home from school. The revelation stunned Ashley. While programs existed to help families on weekends or those with access to transportation, she wondered how children without reliable transportation would survive during long school breaks.
Around that same time, Ashley read Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker, a book about Jesus disrupting the author’s comfortable faith and calling her to a greater purpose. Within its pages was a story about a mobile food distribution—one that deeply resonated with Ashley. Overcome with emotion, she felt an overwhelming sense of clarity.
“I stopped and I was just praying and putting it all together,” Ashley recalled, still getting chills when she thinks back on that moment. “I was like, ‘You want me to take food to children?’ I kept telling the Lord, ‘If this is it, everything has to fall into place.’ And it did.”
One of the biggest challenges Ashley initially faced was finding children in need and convincing their parents that she would reliably deliver food to their homes each week. The program officially launched with just eight families in the summer of 2017, but it quickly grew to serve more than 350 children by the end of the year. Today, Food to the Rescue serves over 650 children in the community.
The multi-denominational Christian organization is made up of local churches, businesses, and citizens of Putnam County who work together to ensure no child goes hungry. With more than 150 volunteers supporting each distribution, Food to the Rescue provides six food deliveries annually to approximately 225 households.
“I knew this is what God wanted me to do because there were so many moments when we’d be short—like 12 loaves of bread—and then someone would step in and say, ‘I can donate 12 loaves of bread,’” Ashley said. “It was just amazing.”
When she’s not feeding children in Cookeville, Ashley enjoys CrossFit, wakeboarding, mountain biking, playing basketball, and camping with her four boys and her husband of 14 years. When asked what it means to give back to the children of Cookeville, Ashley humbly replied, “I’m just doing God’s work. I’m just happy that I’m able to do it.”
In recognition of her impact on the community, Ashley was named one of Upper Cumberland Lifestyle’s Most Influential People in the magazine’s premiere 2022 edition.
-written by Alanna Massey, photos by Katelyn Steakley
