Brad Paisley & Kimberly Williams-Paisley on Love, Family and Giving Back In Nashville | PEOPLE

Hello, I'm

kimberly

williams

paisley

and I'm

brad

paisley

and this is our

people

cover shoot small pan excellent excellent over the past year country music star

brad

paisley and his wife actress

kimberly

williams

paisley have had to put their careers on hold due to the pandemic, but they've been busy raising their two young children and running their passion project, a nonprofit free grocery store they simply called the store. Well, we're in the store here in Nashville. This has been our dream. We have been in development for five years and opened just over a year ago. This is a free, referral-based grocery store for

people

facing food insecurity; they can come and shop with dignity and make decisions for their

family

without receiving a handout, ideally not in a pandemic.

We've had to change because of the pandemic, so now we do delivery, we do curbside delivery, we deliver to homebound seniors and we've delivered over 1.3 or almost 1.3 million meals in our first year . Brad and Kimberly were inspired by another nonprofit, Unity. store that has been serving santa barbara, california since 1987. Well, when we found out it was because you basically thought that our children needed to realize that there were people in need and that they needed to see hunger and that it was also about thanks

giving

, so It was a great lesson and you called a friend and told him where we should take them here and they told you that you had to go to the Unity store as soon as we saw it.

It was obvious to me that this was a model that needed to happen in other places and more specifically in Nashville. 2012 was the year we first went to Unity Shop and, you know, I grew up with a mom who was very big on service, we used to deliver meals on wheels, we used to go to a food bank and we handed out peas and turkey to people and you know, at Thanks

giving

and at Thanksgiving and I always felt a little bit of resentment and I don't think I fully understood why until I grew up and we went to Unity Shop and Barbara Tollefson. who started it, who explained the program to us, and unfortunately she passed away, but she explained what unity shop is about and that people have that sense of dignity and choice, and it's different than receiving a handout, and that's how it was.

It was transformative for us to bring the kids in and let them see that we allow them to normalize and erase the margins so that there's no difference between you and me, we're all together in this community, so that's what I

love

d and and my kids

love

d being there. there, they loved being a part of it and helping out and I think that's really valuable, it's something that I grew up with and I wanted my kids to grow up with that too. The other thing is I feel like it's a model that helps them get

back

on their feet this is for people who are really trying to dig in and um yeah in that sense we took some of the lessons that unity shop was willing to pass on to us and then, you know , we begin the journey.

After trying to make this work, the store opened on March 12, 2020, just a few days before the pandemic spread across the country. The fact that we were able to open this the week before this success is miraculous, yes the timing felt very divine and we could too. I wouldn't have done it without the Nashville community and also the community at large. I mean, the outpouring of support has been incredible. We have an incredible staff. We have amazing volunteers. We have a very active and involved board of directors, so it's not just about us. We couldn't have done it, it was just us, no and people stand up and do these things that are necessary, I mean when we started, when all this happened and they shut everything down and then the doors were closed, we're going to have to figure it out. otherwise, yeah, um, it was my record producer, a guy named Luke Wooten, who called me and said, do you guys deliver to seniors? and I just said, well, it's not really our model, our model was always going to be, you know, low income and he says, look, these people shouldn't be shopping, he said I have a studio full of interns, let's figure this out. , these people, we have nothing to do, we didn't have sessions on the books for the next month, so the next thing you know, Luke is here. and Courtney, who runs the place, they figured out a way to get this whole army of people to deliver meals and you know that's the thing, when you get a place like this, you have to evolve and eventually we'll be what we intended, but we will.

It's probably more than that, there will be aspects of this that we didn't realize we were capable of doing. If you had said you were going to make 1.2 or 3 million meals in your first year, we just said no, that's not possible. Yeah, he just said it's more like 300,000 if we're lucky, but when you have to find a way, yeah, and deliver these meals, it's really emotional when you show up and they're waiting, they're waiting at the door, you know? Think what they would be doing if we weren't showing up today. I was just showing you what a huge donation we received.

The store is located on the campus of Brad's Alma Mater Belmont University. The partnership allows student volunteers to learn the same life lessons that the Paisleys are sharing with their own children. That is the hope of Belmont's involvement, that we are not just talking about our two children and teaching them this lesson that these children that go to school are privileged and I think the median income in Belmont is really high like it's not, there's not a lot of hunger within Belmont, um, so to teach those kids first hand, look, you can be in the music business, you can be a nurse, you can do the things you're going to do. learning and being a lawyer, now they have a great film school, all those things that are a great activity, you need to know that this is happening in the world while you are being successful, so take it with you and the need is huge, you know.

Feeding America estimates that 42 million people face food insecurity and 13 million children, so one in eight adults and one in six children face food insecurity, and I have since responded, as have all of us, to requests from other states , other schools, other friends in other cities saying we want to do this and that's what's on our shoulders is also the idea that this could become something that takes off if we do it right and that's why we know we have to make this work . Yes, I think this is a big part of our legacy as a

family

as a couple, so I think it's of utmost importance great guys, big smiles this time, brad and kimberly had a lot to celebrate in March 2021, besides the first year complete with store operation, the happy couple also celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary.

We have experienced a lot in 18 years, yes, and I realized it again during the pandemic. I really like being around you. Yeah, I wasn't sure about that until then because I wasn't around enough. We had a lot more time as a family. Know? family ping pong tournaments family dodgeball tournaments having him at home has been great he has been much more involved in the day to day life she says having houses has been great it has been great there is a little surprise there is a little of that is enough he cleans the bathrooms, I can do that, he cleans the bathrooms and never complains about it.

You've been washing a lot more dishes, which I'm very grateful for, I'm not grateful for that, I hate that we look

back

every year and We always record the significant moments of the year, as well as the best laughs, and I think that's a big part of our relationship: focus on laughter and maintain a sense of humor and a sense of play. Our sense of humor is everything, yes. We really like the awkward moment, we're not afraid to laugh, you know, sometimes it's hard, but that's the old saying of my favorite saying: "If you laugh later, you better start now, it's not always easy, but you can do it ".

Do that and look at yourself as a mom is incredible, she has to be a mother of three children, that's true, I'm much older and she has to do it, and you have to like juggling all this and then. I've said this before, but you really try to do the right thing all the time and that's amazing. I think watching you give birth to these two children and raise a third has been incredible. This pandemic really brought out a side of us that we weren't willing to pretend wasn't quite right with the Instagram videos they show us at home on a daily basis, I showed your closet, I showed the floor of your closet, what's happening in the closet, yes, which my mother quickly cleaned. she came so the next post was not a coincidence my dirty truck yeah which my dad came and complained yeah and I'll send a picture of the sink and you know her mom is one of those people that comes into the house and I can just watch her drop what she's doing and drive there if she sees a dirty sink on Instagram, which is amazing to have a mother-in-law like that, yeah she's something else, I'm not complaining, while Paisley certainly enjoyed the extra time in family.

Last year, they were both very excited to return to their day jobs. Well, I can't wait to get back to working on set. I love being on a set. That will happen in the next few months, when all this opens up. I just understand. It gives me chills to think about the idea of ​​seeing those people again on a stage that we have booked to play on the 4th of July in Nashville, the band and I at the end of Broadway and that should be a huge welcome if we do this. right, that's a really exciting moment in my mind, the idea of ​​standing on the devil, I wouldn't care if it was a flatbed truck playing a concert for our city saying: you know we did it