It was one of those perfect North Carolina spring days: the sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid 70s, a nice breeze was blowing, the rain from the day before had cleared out and folks were eager to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. You couldn’t ask for a better setting for the Geer Street Learning Garden’s first annual Garden Party and Compost Giveaway.

In short, we love our volunteers! April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and we take appreciating our volunteers pretty seriously. 

Members of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality joined food bank and food hub leaders from around the state at the Food Shuttle Farm for the inaugural Food Rescue Roundtable to address efforts to reduce food waste and improve the effectiveness of hunger relief.

Lettuce and collards and cucumbers. Oh, my! Beginning on Monday, April 3, the Food Shuttle Farm Stand will be open for business again, selling produce fresh from the fields, chemical-free, and all sales supporting the hunger relief programs of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.

The McLauchlan family started the Back Yard Foundation to make a difference “in their own backyard” through funding efforts in education, health, arts and culture, and essential living gifts. They’ve recently come onboard as supporters of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle with the understanding that our missions for the good of our community align so well. 

Every once in a while, an idea comes along that is so simple in concept and makes so much sense that you wonder why things haven’t been running that way all along. That’s what happened with the produce initiative at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. The idea was to buy produce at wholesale prices from limited-resourced local farmers and connect those farmers to partner agencies in their area who are distributing to neighbors in need. 

Gardens For Everyone takes the Food Shuttle’s well-established community gardening program on the road by building 8’ x 4’ x 20” raised garden boxes at individuals’ homes or for community organizations. This is a pay-what-you-can effort, asking for a minimum $25 from individuals and the full cost of $200 per bed from organizations.

2023 is well underway, and Inter-Faith Food Shuttle challenges you to make this the year you make a difference by committing to a hunger free community. Become a Cultivator sustaining monthly donor to the Food Shuttle.

For the fourth year in a row, the Caldwell Fellows program has had a team assigned to the Food Shuttle Farm for their Sophomore Seminar, where the team members work together to live out their guiding principles of servant leadership, principled reflection, personal development, rigorous integrity, and academic excellence.

Last July, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Gardens For Everyone program built Natalya a raised-bed garden box and helped her kickstart her gardening adventure. The Gardens For Everyone program helps local individuals and families access fresh and affordable produce right outside their own homes and experience the joy of growing their own food.

On a quiet corner near downtown Durham, great things are happening. Fresh, nutritious food is being grown to share with neighbors in need. Community members come together to work the soil and tend what’s growing. Knowledge is provided to help others become skilled at growing their own gardens and cooking healthy on a budget. Strangers become friends and lives are changed for the better, all on the quarter-acre lot of Geer Street Learning Garden.