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Putting people before business in time of need

Chef Tandy Wilson working in the kitchen.

When Nashville chef Tandy Wilson's phone rang on Sunday morning, May 2, 2010, he had no idea what was going on around him.  After all, Sunday mornings are a chance to sleep in.  Tandy, 33, is the chef at City House in the historic Germantown neighborhood.   The phone was the restaurant's manager alerting him to the severe flooding descending on Nashville.

Record-breaking rainfall over the weekend dumped more than 13 inches of rain and caused historic flooding in Tennessee and two neighboring states.   In Davidson County – which includes Nashville - 10 people died and thousands more were displaced.  Damage estimates stand at more than $1.5 billion for Nashville alone.

Tandy's first reaction was to make sure the restaurant was okay.   After checking on the building and cancelling all evening reservations, Tandy returned home to watch the horrific flooding on the news.

"Monday we had to make a judgment call.  We could have been open for business," tells Tandy.  Instead, he decided to close the restaurant.  The kitchen staff already had prepped loads of meatballs for a menu item.  "I said, 'Let's take this food and feed some shelters.'  I got on the phone with one of my reps, and he showed up with 30lbs of pasta and a case of tomatoes and all this stuff.  I started cooking.  All of the floor staff who were supposed to be working that night, they came on in and just volunteered their time," Tandy recounts.

"As I was getting the food ready, they were moving it out to one of the bigger shelters at David Lipscomb (University).  I think we fed over 300 people.  And what wasn't eaten at the shelter we took to Meals on Wheels so they could send it out the next day," he says.

Red Cross Volunteer Joe Simpson recalls, "Of the hundreds of clients I served at the Lipscomb University Red Cross shelter, each one expressed so much gratitude for all of the food that had been donated for them.  Having a warm meal not only nourished their bodies, it gave them the comfort and joy they so desperately needed at such a difficult time."

"I think what we did was tiny, really.  It was a half day's work.  What the community did was amazing.   But, that's Nashville.  We're very proud of this place, and we take good care of it," says Tandy, a 5th generation Nashvillian.