LDEI NSH 2020 Grant Recipients

Les Dames d’Escoffier (LDEI) Nashville is proud to announce its continued support for women in the fields of food, fine beverage, hospitality and farming by awarding more than $14,000 in grants to deserving individuals and businesses in the Middle Tennessee area.  This year, two categories of grants were offered. The Disaster Relief Grant was designed to assist women whose livelihoods were adversely affected by the tornadoes of March 3, 2020. The Career Support Grant is specific to assisting women whose livelihoods have been hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Soon after the storm and early into the pandemic, LDEI Nashville recognized the impact both catastrophic events were having on the Nashville hospitality community, and leadership got to work to provide funding to help meet needs. These grants, open to all women pursuing careers in food, fine beverage, hospitality and farming, can be used at the recipients’ discretion to help recover, support and sustain during these uncertain times. 

One Disaster Relief Grant recipient, Mayter Scott, is a food and culture photographer whose work is lauded throughout the Nashville food community. She lost her computer and other equipment in the storm, and subsequently lost business in the pandemic shutdown. Her grant will go toward regaining her losses.

Billie Joyce Helmkay is an expert wine educator and consultant, who just months before the pandemic, went out on her own. She will use her grant toward revamping her company’s website, Thru the Vines. She’ll teach online, keeping her new business afloat until the world opens up a bit more and she can teach people in person.

 Studying teas for over 18 years, Dr. Janet Walsh has become known as the tea maven. Through her business Tea Tea and Company, she teaches the art of tea, its appreciation, its communal spirit and its healing benefits. She will use her funding to take special training on tea and meditation to help ease anxieties in a pandemic world.

Some of the grant recipients include: 

DISASTER RELIEF GRANTS 

Groves Family Dairy/Cassie Groves

Owners/operators family dairy in Portland, TN

Alicia DeArmond

Owner, Two Goats Catering and Manager, Citizen Market

Anna Fields

Owner/Operator Bubble Love LLC

Mayter Scott

Food Photographer

Kayla Ratliff

Hospitality Professional

CAREER SUPPORT GRANTS 

Debra Sandow

Shaken Not Stirred Cleaning Co.

Janet Walsh

Owner, Tea Tea and Company

Billie Joyce Helmkay

Owner, Wine Educator, Thru The Vines

Lisa Ramsey

Chef and Caterer, Lisa’s Culinary Creations

Ingrid Atwater

Hospitality Photographer

Brittney Shanlever

Co-owner, Contagious Cocktails

Nora McDonald

Manager, Farm-to-Families, Second Harvest Food Bank

Destiney Rooks

Culinary Student

Victoria Fillmore Vito

Owner/operator/herbalist Cedar Hill Homestead and Apothecary