LIFE

Nashville couple want wedding gifts to help the hungry

Jessica Bliss
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Jacob Weiss and Joy Teal have a unique request for wedding gifts.

They don't want wine glasses from Macy's. Or a new blender from Bed, Bath & Beyond. No Crate & Barrel bowls. Or a pizza stone from Williams-Sonoma.

Instead, they want to address hunger in Nashville.

The couple, who will get married later this month, have asked their guests to skip the traditional presents and donate instead to a fund they have set up with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

With a goal of raising $10,000, Weiss and Teal plan to provide micro-grants to local nonprofits and social entrepreneurs who may have big ideas but are not big enough to get the backing from larger corporate donors. Weiss and Teal want to provide a boost for startups, churches and the volunteer mom with plenty of passion but no formal support to activate her own solution.

"It's really a gift to us because it's giving us an opportunity to be involved in a cause we care about in a way we haven't been able to before," Weiss says.

Teal fell in love with her fiance because of words like that.

Jacob Weiss and Joy Teal will get married this month. Instead of asking for traditional gifts, they want their guests to help them address hunger in Nashville.

Hunger is an issue that can be misunderstood, she says. So often we think of the faces of starving children in distant, poverty-stricken nations, not realizing that families in our own city face similar hardship. It just may look different here.

An estimated 49 million Americans are food insecure — including more than 1 million Tennesseans, according to domestic hunger relief organization Feeding America.

Despite Nashville's beaming "it" city designation, poverty, underemployment and hunger remain. In fact 1 in 5 Nashville residents live in a food desert where they don't have access to grocery stores, healthy food and fresh produce.

There are children whose only meals may come from the school lunch program. Parents whose cupboards are stocked with nutritionally deficient food, because there are no nearby markets with affordable fruits and vegetables. Families who struggle to put dinner on the table.

Weiss and Teal want to find support for their neighbors.

They recognize that there are many impassioned organizations in our city working to address hunger, and the couple wants to help support the injection of new ideas to strengthen solutions and bring people together.

"We don't want to take away from the in-the-gap services," Teal says. Providing a week's worth of groceries to a family in need is valuable, she says, but when that food is gone the family remains hungry. "It's hard to do everything."

"We want to know what's out there that can complement and add to that," Weiss says.

Weiss and Teal are themselves social entrepreneurs — so they engage in a community of big idea people. Weiss — a professional juggler — runs several efforts, including Playing By Air, a corporate entertainment company that provides free performances for the community and that's supported by corporate event and conference appearances. Teal works on brand management and cause-related marketing.

The couple connected through their shared passion for community building and organizing creative events. It wasn't long after they started dating that Teal brought up someday wanting to do a charity registry at her wedding. Weiss immediately was in favor.

"That's what made me want to marry this man," she says, hugging his arm.

And she knew if there was one day she could ask for something a little out of the ordinary from those who loved her, it would be her wedding day.

"They won't tell me no on this day," she says with a broad smile.

They hope that their wedding guests, and also others in the community, will support the cause, which to this point has raised nearly $5,000 — halfway to their goal.

"I can't think of any better way to start our relationship together than in celebration of ..." Teal pauses for a moment, choking up at the words.

Weiss finishes for her. "... What we care about."

Reach Jessica Bliss at 615-259-8253 and on Twitter @jlbliss

To contribute

Donate to Jacob Weiss and Joy Teal's Wedding Registry to End Hunger at  www.crowdrise.com/jacobjoyscharityweddingregistrytoendhungerinnashvilletn

Contact Weiss and Teal with your big idea at www.jacobandjoy.com.