It was a beautiful Friday at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Raleigh warehouse on the edge of Dorothea Dix Park. The sky was Carolina blue and the sun, once it rose in the sky, was shining brightly. And best of all, the aroma of pork barbecue hung heavy in the air. On Friday, April 17, eight of the barbecue cooks from the Whole Hog Barbecue Series spread out in the parking lot of the Vernon Malone Center—home to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle—to set up their pits and cook up 150 pork barbecue shoulders donated by the North Carolina Pork Council and the National Pork Board. The resulting 800 pounds of barbecue will be distributed though Inter-Faith Food Shuttle programs such as Mobile Markets and the Mobile Tastiness Machine and with their partner agencies. The protein provided by the pork will serve critically vulnerable individuals and families struggling with hunger during the COVID-19 crisis.
Also on April 17, Smithfield Foods delivered a truckload of protein—26 pallets of ham, bacon, and porkchops—about 170,000 servings to the Food Shuttle as part of the company’s “Good Food Challenge” in response to COVID-19. Smithfield Foods kicked off the initiative last month with $3 million in cash and in-kind donations in aid to Feeding America. The company announced additional donations of over 40 million servings of protein distributed to the Feeding America network of food banks across the country, of which Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is a member organization.
According to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Interim CEO/President Bethann James, “Sourcing needed protein has become increasingly difficult as our supply chains are over extended and donating less. Our access to necessary protein items is dwindling. We are grateful for this creative partnership with the NC Pork Council, Smithfield Foods, and the National Pork Board to fill a critical need.”