In August 2024 Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley put the first $1 million into a $5 million drive for a second free grocery in Nashville. On 14 January 2026 The Store opened on the ground floor of TriStar Centennial Medical Center’s B Garage, 311 23rd Avenue North. Eligible, referral-based shoppers pick their own food. The Times of India retold the story on Saturday; Nashville Parent and WSMV documented the opening.

The first shop started in March 2020 on Belmont University’s campus, Paisley’s alma mater. The idea came after the family volunteered, with their two sons, at Unity Shoppe in Santa Barbara: a free supermarket with dignity, not an identical parcel. In 2025 the Belmont site served 2,200 families. The wait list grew. WSMV cited a 40 percent rise in food-insecure families over the previous year.

CEO Collen Mayer said the new space is nearly three times larger, with storage and volunteer room, and can double the neighbours served. In 2025 more than 3,100 volunteers worked the shelves. With the second site the group needs 275 a week. The couple’s million was not the whole budget: the rest is corporate and private gifts plus the hospital partnership.

TriStar Centennial’s leadership said some staff had been spending their own money so patients had food and clothes. The shop ties food help to healthcare. The model is choice: meat, dairy, produce, no one-size pack, for diets, children or small kitchens.

This is not a commercial supermarket. It is a nonprofit, by referral, run with volunteers. The January opening is fact; the 2024 campaign is where the seed money started. TOI wrote now, months after the ribbon.

Paisley and Williams-Paisley remain co-founders, not the cashiers. Anyone who wants to help is asked for hours on the aisle, not applause.

Image: Quintin Soloviev, Nashville skyline, 24 February 2026, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The city, not the inside of The Store.

Sources consulted: Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley put $1 million toward a second free grocery store — The Times of India; ‘The Store’ Opens Second Nashville Location — Nashville Parent.