(MURFREESBORO) Saturday temps on the historic Murfreesboro square are expected to be in the low 70s around lunchtime. If you're in the area, you'll smell the delicious aroma of homemade soups, chili, stews and gumbo. It all part of the 13th Annual Habitat for Humanity "Cookin' To Build".
Tickets are $20 and include a painted pottery bowl to take home, “all you can eat” from the food booths, free dessert and drinks and musical entertainment by Jodal Bravo. Tickets are available now at the Habitat ReStore, 850 Mercury Boulevard. You can also get them online at Eventbrite. For those who personally painted a bowl at the Pottery Place, you enter a half-hour before everyone else (10:30AM).
This year’s event will adhere to Covid-19 safety guidelines from the Rutherford County Health Department, including:
• Staff, volunteers and cooking teams will wear masks. Cooking team members and volunteers will also wear gloves.
• Cooking tents will be spread out more than usual so there is greater social distancing.
• Attendees will pick up a painted bowl the day of the event, but they will not use them for the food. Cooking teams will fill disposable bowls and give attendees individually packaged spoons.
• Desserts will be individually wrapped.
• Protective shields will be at the ticket/money tent and around the painted bowl tents.
Cooking teams from organizations, groups, churches, schools and local businesses prepare the food for free, as a way to help support the Habitat for Humanity mission. Teams also vie for the Golden Bowl Award as attendees vote for their favorites. Previous winners include Site Hawk, Dani Amendola, The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, Mid South Bank, and Oakland Middle School.
Megan Hutchings said, "This year we have three restaurants from the square participating. I know that The Alley on Main and Simply Pure Sweets are good friends but also competitive. Also, all three Rotary clubs are participating and have a friendly rival going."
One of the local Habitat's focuses this year is a new subdivision that is call Legacy Point.
Hutchings shared this picture of the street sign with the name of the entry road to Legacy Point. It's a fitting name for the road that leads to what is presently a field of dreams. Plans call for 75 new homes to be built at that location.
Executive Director Terri Shultz notes, "Habitat does not give houses away but instead helps families who earn 30-80 per cent of the area median income (AMI) buy a home through a low-interest mortgage, so they can build wealth equity and provide a better future for their family. Future Homeowners attend 30 hours of Financial Literacy and Homeowner Education and complete 300-400 hours of sweat equity. Habitat Homeowners are then equipped to sustain their home, manage their money and many move out of a cycle of poverty."
Applications for the 2021 Homeowner Class will be available February 1 – March 1 2021. Information is at http://www.rchfh.org/homeownership/
Sponsors for the 2020 Cookin To Build include Title Sponsor Nissan USA with additional funding from Volunteer State Bank, Thompson Machinery/CAT, Redstone FCU, Atmos Energy, The Pottery Place, Knights of Columbus, Redeemer Classical Academy, Schneider Electric, Wilson Bank & Trust, Kroger, Heritage South, First Bank, Farmers Insurance and U.S. Bank. Sponsorships plus early ticket sales have already raised over $20,000 this year!
