Durham Community Food Pantry

There is a tremendous need for additional food resources to serve families in Durham and Orange Counties. According to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, Durham County currently faces an estimated 1 million pound annual food shortage and Orange County faces an estimate half million pound annual food shortage.

The Durham Community Food Pantry will be a 7,400 sq. foot facility located at the Lakewood Shopping Center in central Durham. Also located at the Lakewood Shopping Center are El Futuro, El Centro, and the Scrap Exchange who will provide additional supportive services to families who visit this food pantry.

The facility will also house the Catholic Charities Durham Regional Offices to provide wrap around services such as budgeting and nutrition classes. The facility will use the service provision model currently in place at Catholic Parish Outreach, which has the demonstrated capacity to serve over 12,000 individuals each month.

Projected numbers for the Durham Community Food Pantry by 2021:

“In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it.”

– Pope Francis

The Durham Community Food Pantry has responded to the call and is seeking support from the community to provide the resources needed to serve the families of Durham and Orange County. Together we can respond to this call to achieve goals beyond our needs and help create an environment of hope and opportunity.

For the Durham Community Food Pantry to be operational at its opening in May 2019, we are asking the community for donations from the list provided. Please help us make this possible as your donations are extremely important as they will help make our community a better place. If you are interested in donating any of the items on the list below, please contact Elise Mudd, Durham Community Food Pantry Program Director, at Elise.Mudd@raldioc.org or at 919-286-1964 ext. 4.

Durham Community Food Pantry
Equipment list

Volunteer Coordinator: The Volunteer Coordinator will:

• Assist with the scheduling of office and food pantry volunteers
• Connect with potential and current volunteers by telephone and email to assess interest
• Fill open volunteer opportunities
• Maintain the volunteer profile database and calendar

Hours: 5-8 flexible hours per week.

Front Desk Reception: The Front Desk Reception volunteer will:

• Answer phones
• Give out general information about services offered
• Distribute resource guides
• Assist with miscellaneous office projects

Hours: 1PM – 5PM

Greeter: The volunteer greeter will:

• Welcome guests as they arrive to the DCFP
• Answer client questions
• Write up food tickets based on client sign-up sheet
• Complete light desk

Spanish language skills are a plus, but not required.

Hours: 9AM – 1PM

Food Pantry Assistance: Food pantry assistance volunteers will:

• Work in the food sorting and repacking area
• Stock shelves
• Pack boxes
• Sort vegetables
• Use carts to assist clients in taking their groceries to their cars
• Complete light to medium duty tasks

Hours: 9AM – 1PM

Interviewer: The volunteer interviewer will:

• Interview clients and update client records.
• Communicate client needs with food pantry volunteers
• Complete data entry and record keeping through the Catholic Charities database
• Complete light desk work

Spanish language skills are a plus, but not required

Hours: 9:30AM – 1PM

Warehouse Assistance: Warehouse assistance volunteers will:

• Receive, weigh, and store canned, boxed, and refrigerated food
• Operate the fork lift and pallet jack
• Complete medium to strenuous level duties

Hours: 8:30AM – 1PM