HERO Program

• Catherine Knowles, Program Coordinator
  •  (615) 259-8729

• Aroet Avitia Contreras, Program Assistant (general questions)
  •  (629) 224-9045

• Sheila Decker, Family Outreach Specialist, Southeast and Southwest Quadrant   

• Dornedria Joseph, Family Outreach Specialist, Northeast and Northwest Quadrant
• Jennifer Hackett, HERO Transportation Specialist
  • 615-662-3005
• Jami Oakley, Volunteer and Community Partnerships

The HERO Program welcomes volunteers and serves students alongside community partners. We’d love to have you on our team.

How You Can Help

• Host a supply drive and collect clothing, food, hygiene items, gas and grocery gift cards.
• Fill the HERO. Pantry by collecting items personally or within a group – see our carefully-crafted Grocery List in the documents available for download below.
• Host a school uniform drive with UniCycle, the school-based non-profit that collects “outgrown, not worn out” standard school attire (polo-style shirts and khaki, black and navy bottoms) and supplies those items to HERO. and other students.
• Be a HERO Support Hub Volunteer – Your group can stock, organize and help distribute items for students for a day, week, month or season; we also need individual volunteers in this space!
• Collect funds to help support our work – we'll use it to keep our school uniform program up and running, to purchase specially-needed items for HERO students or to supply gas or food cards on an emergency basis.
• Your group can be a Purposity HERO for a month.
  • Purposity is a web-based app that allows community members to view and purchase critically-needed items for HERO families on an ongoing basis.

Or, we’d love to hear an idea you have or a resource you’d like to offer.

Contact Us

For more information about getting involved contact Jami Oakley.

The HERO program identifies and supports students within Metro Nashville Public Schools who are experiencing homelessness. Team HERO provides essentials such as food, hygiene products, gas cards, new shoes, and school uniforms to students through regular programming, partners, and volunteers.

Some items, however, can’t be provided this way. The best solution for these needs is a web-based system called Purposity (Purpose + Generosity = Purposity). Through Purposity, the HERO team connects the Nashville community to provide these trickier items to families with one-click shopping. Critical needs that would otherwise go unmet are listed on the Purposity website, where individuals can choose items to purchase. The goods are delivered to the HERO offices and then hand-delivered to families.

Be a Purposity HERO!

Have your group sign up to be Purposity HEROs for a month — a member of the HERO team will visit your group, help promote the website internally, and make it easy, fun, and meaningful to purchase items that keep necessities flowing to our families. The website is easy to use, and there are fun ways to track your group’s progress.

What will you find on the Purposity list?

The HERO Purposity list typically includes items to help families living in unstable housing situations — such as motels, shared housing, campgrounds, or other temporary arrangements — maintain as much ease and comfort as possible. Common items include:

• Air mattresses
• Sleeping bags
• Towels or bedding
• Specific clothing needs outside of the standard school uniform

Sometimes the list also features items for families transitioning from homelessness into stable housing — this joyful list may include:

• Dishes
• Cleaning supplies
• Small furniture items

Metro Schools Purposity

Team HERO operates at the former Buena Vista Elementary School, where we keep a pantry supplied for our students and families. 

We rely on community volunteers to stock the pantry with goods that are delivered directly to our students and families.

If you are interested, a member of our HERO team will come to speak to your group as you prepare to collect items, to ensure a well-rounded understanding of the critical needs being filled within the public school community

HERO provides a handy list of grocery items that help our families most.

And, depending on your group's chosen level of involvement, the project can come full circle as you visit our facility to see and learn more about what we do and deliver items.

A more extended project can include stocking the shelves and pre-packing boxes or bags of grocery items for ease of delivery throughout the month.

Weekends and any school holidays, even a long weekend, often mean a critical meal shortage for students. The HERO pantry fills in those gaps for families outside of school.

Get Started Today

Be our Pantry HEROs for a month this school year. Email Jami Oakley to get started, or call (713) 301-7815.

Pantry List

• Ramen or other “Cup of Noodles”-style meals in a cup, no bowl required
• Mac and Cheese – single serve, in a cup
• Pop-Top Chef Boyardee or other pasta meals
• Vienna sausages
• Tuna or Chicken salad kits – in vacuum-sealed pouches with mix-ins and crackers
• Shelf-stable microwavable meals (often found near mac and cheese in the grocery and from brands such as Hormel or Kraft)
• Granola bars
• Squeezable fruit snacks (GoGo Squeez apple sauce, etc.)
• Microwave popcorn
• Oatmeal or cereal in bowls
• Shelf-stable milk – in quarts or single-serve (Horizon milk boxes)
• Bottled water
• Drink mixes (lemonade or Gatorade powder, etc.)
• Can openers, critical when it comes to accessing other food donations

The Pantry List, with additional information, can be downloaded from the document container on this page.

Thank you for being our HERO! Items in our pantry serve families in housing situations that often mean little-to-no kitchen access — hotel living, doubled up with another family, or in a shelter where meals are scheduled — so we’ve sourced a list from parents and caregivers of the items that would be most welcome and impactful.

Note: The overlying theme of these items is kid-friendly and one and done — nothing more than a microwave and water needed to make a quick meal or snack.

• Ramen or other “Cup of Noodles”-style meals in a cup, no bowl required
• Mac and Cheese — single serve, in a cup
• Pop-top Chef Boyardee or other pasta meals
• Vienna sausages
• Tuna or chicken salad kits — vacuum-sealed pouches with mix-ins and crackers
• Shelf-stable microwavable meals (brands such as Hormel or Kraft, often found near mac and cheese)
• Granola bars
• Squeezable fruit snacks (such as GoGo Squeez applesauce)
• Microwave popcorn
• Oatmeal or cereal in bowls
• Shelf-stable milk — in quarts or single-serve (such as Horizon milk boxes)
• Bottled water
• Drink mixes (lemonade or Gatorade powder, etc.)
• Can openers — critical for accessing other food donations

Thank you for helping us serve families in a practical and respectful way. Your donations are making days easier for them and for the school-based staff who support them.

Please email contact Jami Oakley or call 713-301-7815 with any questions or to organize a collection