KERRY WILSON doesn’t do winter or holiday prep the way most people do. At the end of 2025, Wilson was doing what she does every year: counting carefully and preparing for more people than most households plan for. She and her husband, who first had this dream, Pastor Steve, use their garage and cul-de-sac to make sure that the unhoused are seen, heard, and most importantly, fed. Last season, that meant adopting six families through her ministry to ensure they had food, stability, and a sense of being seen. It also meant celebrating her daughter — their only child — who secured a competitive internship with Disney in August and is now dancing professionally, a milestone Kerry and Steve carry with both pride and gratitude.
For Kerry, no holiday has ever been contained to a single day. Each is a point in a season defined by continuity — returning, again and again, to the same people and the same needs.
Kerry and Steve Wilson are the founders of Jesus Provisions Ministries, a Mount Juliet-based food pantry and outreach organization that operates out of their two-car garage and extends weekly into downtown Nashville. Together, they have been in ministry since 2007. Steve spent many years as a prison minister before the need for a broader community ministry took shape.
That turning point came after the couple attended a local church and witnessed an unhoused woman being escorted out because she appeared “suspicious.” The woman was living behind a nearby Waffle House and was fleeing an abusive husband who was later convicted of murder. Kerry learned the woman was overwhelmed, hopeless, and considering ending her life.
Kerry stayed. Alongside Steve, they helped the woman find employment, supported her through legal proceedings, and ultimately assisted in reuniting her with family in Texas. That experience reshaped how Kerry and Steve understood ministry — not as programming, but as proximity.
From there, relationships formed naturally. They began praying with unhoused neighbors, then gathering with them. Eventually, those relationships became a weekly Sunday morning service designed specifically for people living outside traditional systems of care. That service continues today, serving roughly 200 unhoused individuals every Sunday in downtown Nashville.
In September 2019, the Wilsons formally established Jesus Provisions Ministries, transforming their garage into a community care center and office. The timing proved significant. When tornadoes tore through Middle Tennessee in March 2020, the ministry was already positioned to respond. Local news coverage followed, donations increased, and community groups stepped in. The Boy Scouts of America arrived with a horse trailer filled with food. What began in part of a garage expanded to fill the entire space.
Today, Jesus Provisions Ministries operates five days a week and remains entirely volunteer-run. No one receives a paycheck. Twenty-seven regular volunteers keep the pantry operating, manage food distribution, and assist with Sunday outreach. Kerry credits them with sustaining the ministry, particularly during the past two years, as Steve has dealt with serious illness. During that time, volunteers assumed additional responsibilities so Kerry could focus on her husband’s care without closing the doors on the work.
The pantry currently serves about 30 families per week, providing food intended to sustain households for approximately two weeks. Each distribution includes staples such as milk, eggs, and bread. A local farmer supplies fresh eggs, while Trader Joe’s and partner organizations like Sanctuary Homeless Refuge contribute supplemental food. Thanksgiving is the ministry’s largest annual effort. In 2024, 500 families were served, including 200 families assisted directly from the Wilsons’ cul-de-sac with support from the Mount Juliet Police Department.
In the greater Nashville area, thousands of people experience severe low-income circumstances. They must manage being unhoused, including minors and seniors — numbers Kerry pays attention to, not as statistics, but as indicators of stress points in the community.
Kerry’s understanding of homelessness challenges common assumptions. Economic disruption, job loss, and housing instability often precede substance abuse, rather than the other way around. The rapid fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic — isolation, fractured families, and lost income — accelerated that decline for many. In Kerry’s experience, once momentum is lost, there is little margin for recovery.
Discretion is a core value of the ministry. Operating out of their own garage allows families to receive help without public exposure. People can accept support while keeping their privacy intact, choosing which parts of their story they share and which remain theirs alone.
Despite the scale of the work, Jesus Provisions Ministries remains relatively unknown — a reality Kerry refers to as being a “silent organization.” Without name recognition or major institutional backing, funding can be harder to secure. Yet the work continues, sustained by relationships and by volunteers who step in quietly when gaps appear.
Those moments often define the ministry more than large events. When rising egg prices once overwhelmed Kerry, a volunteer reached out to farmer friends and sourced fresh eggs within days. When caregiving responsibilities increased at home, volunteers assumed leadership roles without being asked.
Kerry does not frame the work as extraordinary. She speaks instead of faithfulness — of returning tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. The garage doors will open. Food will be distributed. People will be fed, seen, and welcomed. GN
For more information about Jesus Provisions Ministries, and Kerry and Pastor Steve, visit jesusprovisions.org.
