50 Million Meals

One Gen Away's Incredible Milestone

What started as an organization made by two, has now turned into a movement that has changed the lives of millions.

Since its founding in 2013, One Gen Away has worked to fight against hunger in places like Middle Tennessee, Northern Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle.

The nonprofit does this by rescuing surplus food from grocery stores, restaurants, and farms and handing it out to people who are struggling with food insecurity. This year, One Gen Away celebrated its newest milestone: delivering their fifty millionth meal.

Founded by Chris and Elaine Whitney, the couple created the company after finding themselves in a foodline for six months. They had an understanding for the situation of not knowing when your next meal will be. Moving to Franklin to start a church, the couple ended up turning what was considered the worst thing to happen to them, into a mission.

The food is delivered through mobile food pantries that partner with agencies, schools and shelters. OneGen also provides disaster relief helping communities that are affected by tornados, floods and hurricanes. They also introduced a delivery concept, Doorstep Pantry. Partnering up with DoorDash, OneGen has been able to deliver foods to people’s houses.

Feeling called to share food, the Whitneys created OneGenAway with the vision to “wipe hunger off the face of America by teaching people to love one another through service.” What started with just two people is now a staff of ten and around 11,000 volunteers. Together, these people have worked together to deliver and serve fifty million meals demonstrating what a community can do together.

For the fifty millionth meal, there was a community celebration hosted at the OneGen warehouse. It started with a prayer breakfast, and it was followed with a press conference and an open house. In the evening, an open mic night was held at the Franklin Theater featuring the Warren Brothers.

Founder Chris Whitney said, “In 2014 we served 350,000 meals in one year. Now we are serving our fifty millionth meal. Thank you thank you to our volunteers. Thank you to our donors. Thank you to our amazing team - without all of you this would not have happened. We are so grateful, humbled and honored to serve our friends and family suffering from food insecurity. Now here's to adding a zero: let's head for our 500 millionth meal.”

While the celebration showed off OneGen’s success and impact, the job to wipe away hunger is unfinished. OneGen welcomes anyone who shares the same passion and wishes to assist in the battle against food insecurity, volunteers or donors.

This celebration was not just a win for OneGen, this was a win for the city of Franklin and the community it brings together.

For more information, visit onegenaway.com.