The Well Outreach food ministry, serving southern Williamson County and northern Maury County, was founded in 2006 at a local church, WellSpring Christian. Originally founded to serve church members with food insecurity, The Well provided groceries for families in crisis.
Very quickly, they became a resource for the local church as well as the Spring Hill and surrounding communities. Within three years, the once small-town community began seeing record population numbers. By 2009, in order to serve the expanding population, The Well became a free-standing non-profit entity.
In 2009, The Well moved to a 1,500 square foot building where it offered pantry services during the weekdays, evenings and weekends and held its first two Mobile Pantries through a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank. In 2010, The Well added their JetPack weekend-meal assistance program, providing four meals to students in need at eight local schools during the school year.
In 2019, The Well had outgrown their limited quarters and dreamed about moving into a larger space where they could receive full pallets of food and local church partners, now packing JetPacks for 19 schools, could pack together in community. In early 2020, The Well’s dream came true with a 7,000 square foot property in Spring Hill that had originally been a grocery store, hardware store and several churches through the years. Dreams of a separate warehouse, a meeting space and not just one, but three pantries, were planned for and built through a capital campaign.
On March 15th, 2020, the week after Covid took off, The Well opened their doors to their neighbors in need and began serving Spring Hill, Columbia, Thompson’s Station, Santa Fe and College Grove. With Covid, The Well opened their doors to serve anyone in need, regardless of where they lived. The dream of multiple pantries soon became a ‘drive-through” pantry ensuring both guest and volunteer safety during Covid. And their new, much-needed, larger parking lot became just the way to do it! A new warehouse, though empty at first, soon filled up as local business owners, churches and donors rushed to fill the shelves.
In the most recent fiscal year, The Well served nearly 12,000 people in need with 500,000 meals through their pantry distributions and Mobile Pantry program. In addition, The Well’s JetPack Program served 19 schools and 50,000 meals to students in need.
The Well is led by Shelly Sassen, their Executive Director and Joseph Knapp, Operations Director. The Well’s theme of “It takes a community to feed a community” is its culture. The goal is to advocate for those in need, find champions and together serve those in need. Through their mission of “being the hands and feet of Christ by serving those in need through supporting spiritual, emotional and physical growth” – they are doing just that!
