Providing Help, Creating Hope, Serving All
Providing Help, Creating Hope, Serving All
Roberto and Elizabeth own and run Copa, a popular farm-to-table Cuban restaurant and living wage employer in Durham. Copa has been a key supporter of the Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP) and clients over the last two years. The husband-and-wife team began working with the DCFP at the beginning of the pandemic by participating in a program that provided hot meals to clients. The program was a partnership with the nonprofit Upstream Works Collaborative, and… Read More
Veronica Subinas moved to the United States from Argentina 14 years ago. After traveling through Europe for much of her life, Subinas eventually settled and called North Carolina her home. Due to her frequency in moving, she adopted volunteering as her career. Having lost her father at a young age and by caring for her mother, she was aware of how important it is to have people around you who are willing to help. When deciding… Read More
Cameron Morgan joined the Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP) team in April 2020 having previously worked at “The Scrap Exchange,” next door. However, Cameron had actually already worked with the DCFP since its inception in 2019. As the Covid-19 pandemic began to grow, the DCFP found itself in a precarious situation. It needed to continue growing and serving the community and navigate the serious danger posed by the rapidly worsening virus. Since reopening to the… Read More
Gordon Davis started volunteering in February 2020 at the Durham Community Food Pantry and has since become a key volunteer. Davis, more commonly known as “G-man,” loves gluten-free, savory foods! He is always ready to better serve the clients of our community and always looks out for his fellow volunteers. Davis initially stepped in to help with food distribution, serving the community during our drive-through operations hours. He also frequently used his handyman skills to… Read More
Each week, some of the produce donated to the Durham Community Food Pantry (DCFP) may be old, or not suitable to be distributed to the public. The DCFP works with community partners to dispose of this unusable food in a way that reduces costs for the pantry while having a positive environmental impact. One such partner is Lewis, who uses food that can’t be distributed as chicken feed and to create soil compost! In addition… Read More
In summer 2020, the produce-packing room at the Durham Community Food Pantry filled with the smells of oregano, cilantro, parsley, thyme, and basil. Local organizations such as the Scrap Exchange and churches such as Holy Cross kindly donated bundles of herbs and vegetables every week fresh from their community gardens. Each Tuesday, volunteers marveled at the bright peppers and bulbous tomatoes. Families received boxes filled to the brim with local produce and flavors of North… Read More
Generating Resources and Opportunities for Wellness – that is the mission of the GROW project and how the program got its name. Founded by a group of UNC Chapel Hill undergraduates, GROW is “a social innovation project” aiming to “create resources and opportunities centered around mental, physical, and nutritional wellness for those experiencing food insecurity in the Triangle.” The GROW team plans to curate these resources for Durham Community Food Pantry clients through a series… Read More
Debbie Reed moved to Durham in 2014, after a career as a management consultant for both For-Profit and Non-Profit organizations. Her Non-Profit career took her through various parts of the world including India, Tanzania, and Kenya before arriving in New York as the COO of the National Academy Foundation. At the National Academy Foundation, Reed supported the agencies mission to create specialized programs within public high schools to teach students essential personal and professional skills… Read More
*For privacy concerns, names were changed in this story. Eviction is a reality that far too many families face when they struggle to pay their bills each month. This is the situation that Diane Lane found herself in before coming to the Durham Community Food Pantry, a program of Catholic Charities. After suffering job related injuries, Lane’s monthly income dwindled down to only $400 a month. As a result, she was struggling to pay her… Read More
While all food pantries provide clients with groceries, there exist varying pantry operation models, each with their own benefits and accompanying challenges. Over the past several decades, doctors, nutritionists, sociologists, policy analysts, and other social scientists have studied the methods and operations of different food pantry models. Their work has reviewed the effects of operations on clients’ individual lifestyles, as well as the effects of operations within larger social structures. This research has resulted in… Read More