Adam DeVries is the Executive Director of Crowded Table, a nonprofit that formed in 2023. The focus of Crowded Table is on mobilizing churches in the Nashville area to support foster families and case workers. 

The idea for Crowded Table began with DeVries’ firsthand experience being a foster parent. Adam and his wife Sara began fostering in 2019 and they first said yes to a 9-year-old girl. However, a half hour after saying yes, they got another call. The child also has two brothers: one 13 years old and one 19 years old. 

“We didn’t know if we could do that and so we said yes to a weekend. And then 18 months, two Christmases, and a pandemic later, those kids finally went into a permanent placement.  

“The only reason we didn’t give up, which we wanted to, was because of the ways churches supported us.” 

Sabbatical

Around the time the children went to a permeant placement, Adam was serving as a pastor at a church and began a sabbatical. He spent his sabbatical researching what was going on in Nashville and in Tennessee (“a pastor’s version of research,” he jokes).  

What he found out became the call to form Crowded Table. 

His research revealed that Tennessee is ranked amongst the lowest in the nation when it comes to foster care, measured specifically by how often kids have to change homes. The changing of homes is related to foster parenting burning out. However, as he learned more, he also saw a spark of hope.

“Nationwide, we retain 50% of our foster families every year, and that Nashville and Tennessee are below that national average. But then, if a family is supported, then that 50% retention rate jumps up to 90%.”

This lined up with Adam and his wife Sara’s personal experience. They continued being foster parents because of the support they received from their church. This got Adam thinking. Then he discovered that Nashville has more churches than foster homes, which makes Nashville “uniquely positioned for the church to increase the retention rate of foster families from 50% to 90%, if we just pair each church with a foster family.” 

How Crowded Table is asking churches to support foster families: 

The nonprofit currently has a list of 125 churches who have said “yes!” to doing this work. 

The nonprofit is asking churches to build a team of 10-15 people for a two-year commitment of walking alongside a foster family. These “Table teams” provide meals once or twice a week, groceries once or twice a month, and then laundry or lawn care.  

“The idea is that the children in foster care, they’re the host, and people are coming to their table, and for us to be able to surround them with a constellation of care and a network of relationships.” 

That’s the goal of Crowded Table. It’s about flipping the switch on what can be a very isolating experience and putting the child in foster care at the center of a network of people who can support them. 

The origins of the name

The name came from the song of the same name, which came to Adam and Sara at the perfect moment. The song by The Highwomen came out in 2019, around the time that Adam and Sara were in foster parent training and about to say yes to taking in the 9-year-old girl. “We got the call about her brothers and we were like ‘I don’t know if we can do it’. I have this memory of being in the parking lot of my church. I pulling out of [the parking lot] thinking, ‘can we do this?’ and the song Crowded Table comes on.” 

He sings the lyrics of the chorus. “I want a house with a crowded table, and a place by the fire for everyone.“

“That song comes on, that chorus and I’m like fine,” DeVries laughs. “That was sort of the theme song for our process in foster care, as foster parents.” 

Adam jokes about Nashville being a small-big town and was able to ask the writer of the song, Natalie Hemby, if she would be okay if he used the title of the song as the name. 

“And she had the kindest response. She said: ‘I would love if a song I wrote, to be named after your nonprofit.’ Which is just so generous.” 

Thank you Adam DeVries and Crowded Table for being apart of Every Child TN!

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