Because of you, more children will start the school day ready to learn, without the pang of hunger as a distraction. Our Back-to-School campaign reminds us that along with pencils and paper, children need a daily supply of food to take on new concepts, run on playgrounds, and socialize more successfully.
Our Community Health and Agriculture Education teams have collaborated to develop the new Food Shuttle Academy, an online learning platform with free, self-paced lessons on health, nutrition, agriculture, and more!
Our Spring Match challenge, made possible by generous funders, including SOLV Energy and the Mead Family Foundation, exceeded the $105,000 goal, raising an additional $70,000 to erase hunger!
Love, Tito’s has a heart for community gardens and increasing access to fresh, healthy foods. Their philanthropic Love, Tito’s Block to Block program, reconnects neighborhoods and creates community gardens and farms throughout the United States. Our hearts are in full bloom knowing that our Camden Street Garden will be the next beneficiary of Block to Block, allowing neighbors with mobility challenges to access our many activities more easily.
At La Iglesia El Buen Pastor in Durham, Mobile Market coordinator Walkiria Castillo introduced us to Gladys., one of the neighbors who attends the Mobile Market each month to pick up free groceries, fresh produce, and baked goods. Gladys uses the food items she receives to supplement her family’s food budget as she takes care of the nine people in her household
Spring is finally here and everything is abloom! Beginning April 1, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your gift to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle during our Spring Match Challenge. All gifts made through May 31 will be matched up to $105,000, thanks to our generous funders, including the Mead Family Foundation and SOLV Energy.
For the last 16 years, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has partnered with Food Lion and the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation to create a hunger free community in central North Carolina. This partnership has made a difference in the lives of neighbors throughout the region, as the grocery store chain and its charitable foundation have provided funding to a variety of Food Shuttle program initiatives over the course of the last year in excess of $75,000—and that support continues to grow.
Helping and Healing Hearts, Inc. offers Johnston County residents the opportunity to get free non-perishable and perishable food items once every 30 days. Thanks to grant funding, residents of the county can also apply for assistance with rent and utilities. Applications are available at the pantry, located at 804 E. Market St. in Smithfield, NC 27577. The pantry is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle was recently awarded a grant from Feeding America in the amount of $750,000. These funds will enable the Food Shuttle to increase food purchases, hire additional staff and make important equipment upgrades—all in efforts to expand programming to meet the rising need due to COVID-19.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle held the Chatham County COVID-19 Mobile Market on June 4th at St. Julia Catholic Church in Siler City. Word of the event spread through flyers, social media, email and word of mouth throughout the month prior. The goal was to provide food to 1,500 households during the five hours of the drive-thru Market, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
On a spring-like February day, tables in the community room at Wake Forest Baptist Church were lined with crates of apples, tomatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, bananas, strawberries, potatoes (both white and sweet), lettuce, grapes, bread, and baked goods. Volunteers were setting out food from Inter-Faith Food Shuttle for our monthly community Mobile Market at the church– providing good food directly to folks in need. Many waited patiently for the market to begin. One man at the market, Farris Simpson, lost his job four months ago, and his wife, with multiple sclerosis, relies on disability for support.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been to anything like this,” he said. The reality is that anyone can be affected by hunger and find themselves in need of a little help to make ends meet. And that’s exactly what the market provides. Run once a month by two kind-hearted volunteers from the church, the market welcomes all folks in need - no questions asked - to get whatever they need for free.
Sherrell Seda is a 44 year old veteran on disability and has two twin 16 year old boys to take care of, Dominique and Demetrius. She says she appreciates the Mobile Market for the abundance and variety of fruits and vegetables.
“A lot of vegetables and produce we get here, we couldn’t afford at the supermarket.” She lamented that “we just get so busy just trying to fill the children up” that sometimes what’s healthful gets neglected.
Sherrell also welcomes the opportunity to try new things.
“A lot of stuff you can get here, you might never have tried before,” she says. Last month, she got to try a pomegranate for the first time. Her athletic sons are big meat eaters, but she says the vegetables she gets from the mobile market ensure they get other nutrition, too. She’s thankful to have food to give them energy for their wrestling matches and ballgames.
The help from the market “goes farther than you’d think,” said Sharrell, “it’s like a drop of water falling in a basin, the way it spreads….it’s a blessing.”
Mitch Phillips, referred to the market by Urban Ministries, was there for his first time as well. He said he had a difficult time buying fruits and vegetables with food stamps while trying to make the benefits last the whole month.
“All you can buy is hot dogs and bologna….maybe a roast if it’s marked down three or four times,” he says, shaking his head, “…and then they CUT food stamps!”
The market provides knowledge as well as food. The IFFS Nutrition team shows participants healthful ways to use the produce they get there, providing tips on how to cook healthy on a budget.
This month’s lesson focused on reducing sodium intake, with tips such as not adding salt until you’re at the table and using herbs and spices to add flavor in place of salt.
Participants sampled a healthier version of a comfort-food favorites: whole-grain mac ‘n’ cheese with broccoli! The nutrition team then compared the ingredient list for this recipe to the ingredient list for Kraft’s boxed macaroni and cheese – which contains higher fat content (including that nasty trans fat), higher sodium, and way less fiber than the recipe our nutrition team prepared.
“Do you know what Triployphosphate is?” Katherine Moser, IFFS's Nutrition Outreach Coordinator, asks the crowd, “Me neither.” But all of the ingredients in the whole-grain dish were ones participants could easily find in the grocery store and know how to shop for.
Participants are challenged to "Try it, Share it, Change it" - Try a new food or recipe, Share information or food with a someone you know, or make a small Change in eating and behaviors.
