Tom Schulte spent decades climbing the ranks of the insurance industry before retiring to Ball Ground, Georgia — and rather than settle into a quiet retirement of golf and pickleball, he picked up woodworking tools and started building kitchen tables for strangers. Six years later, he has made 430 of them, all handed over for free to Habitat for Humanity families moving into new homes across the state.
Schulte’s project, called Your Family’s Table, grew out of his own volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, which he has supported for eight years, according to CBS Atlanta. He helped build homes for families seeking homeownership, and at some point decided those families needed something else too: a table to gather around once the keys were finally in hand. He does not take a paycheck for any of it.
Before he founded the nonprofit, Schulte spent more than 40 years in executive leadership roles in employee benefits, including senior management positions at Aetna, CIGNA, and Dominium Benefits, and he served as interim CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Georgia and Alabama, according to background published by Your Family’s Table. The idea for the tables themselves traces back to a family retail venture: Schulte’s wife and daughter opened a store called Southern Oak Provisions in Ball Ground and asked him to build farm tables for the shop, a request that instead sent him toward building tables for low-income Habitat homeowners.
A Table, A Basket, And A Family Signature
Each table Schulte builds gets seating to go with it, and every one is signed on the underside with the words “Your Family’s Table.” The nonprofit also sends families off with a basket meant for something specific: a place to put phones while everyone sits down to eat, so devices stay off the table and conversation stays face-to-face, the group says…