(George Shaw with the Northern Community Food Security Team provided the following information about local food and services during this stressful time.)
* Wake Forest has a 40 year history of collaboration in food security
* Some of this occurs through community wide events with 175-350 volunteers such as the annual potato bagging in the parking lot of St. Catherine’s in February, meal packing for Rise Against Hunger & Crop Hunger Walk each September
* Much more occurs through the initiative of churches & civic organizations
* This tradition has enabled Wake Forest to build a strong infrastructure to support those in need. Our community has responded by adding new programs as well as donating generously
* Most existing programs continue to run – most of them have transitioned to curb side or drive through approaches. All have implemented procedures to ensure the safety of both the volunteers & the customers
* There are many opportunities for residents of Wake Forest to make a personal difference by donating food and money as well as volunteering.
* Wake Network of Care is a tremendous source of information about resources to help those in need. If your organization is not on their list, please contact them to add it.
* Please share your own stories of how you have helped out
Quotes:
* We are in uncharted territory
* This is like “surfing on a tsunami”
The Northern Regional Center is a student food distribution site. In response to the closure of schools through at least March 27, the Northern Regional Center at 350 East Holding Avenue, is now a food distribution site for Wake County families.
Until school resumes, area families may pick up food at the Northern Regional Center for students ages 18 and under Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Placed in safe and sanitized food containers, the food will be distributed by volunteers at curbside to minimize safety concerns.
In addition, Wake County Public School System added 11 schools to the food distribution list that includes Forestville Elementary at 100 Lawson Ridge Road, Knightdale with 10 other Raleigh and Cary schools.
Food distribution at these sites includes hot lunches for the day and breakfast for the next day.
Food will be distributed at curbside to minimize safety concerns. The food will be placed in safe and sanitized food containers.
Parents will not be required to show ID, and children do not have to be present to pick up food.
- Programs that continue to remain open + new programs
Most of the food pantries and feeding programs are still open in the Wake Forest area. Most of these programs have shifted to a drive through basis to enable social distancing for both volunteers and customers.
Here are the programs that will be in operation during the next week:
Saturday, March 28
* Richland Creek Church (3229 Burlington Mill Rd.) – drive through
* Tri Area Ministry food delivery to Spring Street Church, 309 Spring Street. Bags will be given out as a drive-through, meaning everyone will drive or walk up, pick up a bag from the truck and continue moving.
* Wake Forest Baptist Church’s Good Neighbor Ministry passes out hot dogs and water at Taylor Street Park at 11 am.
Sunday, March 29
* North Wake Church (1212 South Main St.) – 8:30 to 10 a.m. – (awaiting email from Rob Craig confirming they are still open)
Monday, March 30
* Tri Area Ministry (149 E. Holding St.), 10 am to 1 pm
Tuesday, March 31
* New Bethel Baptist Church, 8 to 10 a.m., 605 E. Young St., Rolesville
* Glory Tabernacle, 2 to 4 p.m., 120 Weather St., Youngsville (drive through)
Wednesday, April 1
* Oak Level Christian Church, 11 am to 12 noon., 2279 Cedar Creek Road, Youngsville
* Mobile Soup Kitchen from Wake Forest Baptist Church starting 5:45 p.m. in the parking lot at Olive Branch Baptist Church (326 E. Juniper St.)
Thursday, April 2
* New Bethel Baptist Church, 2 to 4 p.m., 605 E. Young St., Rolesville
New Programs to collect food for pantries
* Pantries need canned goods, shelf-stable food, hygiene products, paper towels, toilet paper and soap
* Drive Through Food Pantry at Wake Forest United Methodist Church (905 S. Main St). Drop food into the large bins which are on the patio behind the Family Life Center. They will be stored inside the center and delivered to Tri Area Ministry
* Drive Through Food Pantry at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church (12605 Capital Blvd) – starts up on Friday, March 27
* Wake Forest Baptist Church’s Drive Through Food Drive is looking for shelf stable items to be donated during the blood drive from 10 a.m. 3 p.m. on Sunday. Participants will be able to pull into the church parking lot and drop off their donations under the awning in a donation bin. Items will be taken to local food banks to help during this time of need. If participants are unable to donate items during the assigned time on Sunday, they will still be able to contribute by dropping items off at the church office in a donation bin.
Our Community Gardens have started up again
Community Connections Garden at Wake Forest Baptist Church, (118 S. East St.). They are traditionally open on Saturdays mornings but are now also currently meeting on Friday afternoons. There is a lot of planting to be done, but the gardens are cleaned out. They are trying to minimize the amount of people by creating more garden days for volunteers. Food from the garden goes to pantries and kitchens in the Wake Forest area. More information including a signup for the newsletter can be found in the Community Connections Garden page at https://www.wfbccommunitygarden.org/
There are also Community Gardens at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church Community Garden (12605 Capital Blvd) and Spring Street next to Spring Street Christian Church. (I do not have confirmation that these two are open.)
- Programs that have suspended or reduced operations during the coronavirus emergency
* Hope House’s food distribution program on Thursdays at 1 p.m.
* Brown Bag Ministry programs to distribute food to New Hope Village on Saturday mornings in Northeast Wake Forest. These include the operations for St. Catherine’s of Siena as well as Hope Lutheran.
* Hope House’s food distribution program to the Northeast community (all evenings except for Saturday) has been reduced. It used to be hot meals; they are currently making sandwiches.
- Opportunities for those to donate or volunteer, including practicing social distancing.
Donate
– canned goods, shelf-stable foods, hygiene products, diapers and baby wipes.
– Money. This will enable pantries to make spot purchases to supplement donated food. Pantries can purchase meat and other high value goods at 19 cents per pound at the Food Bank in Raleigh
Volunteer – all of the pantries are practicing social distancing both for volunteers as well as for customers. Many of them can use additional volunteers as the number of customers increases with the economic impact of the virus. They need help bagging as well as moving food to cars. Several of the programs also need drivers.
- Resources to help those in need
Food security is only one of a wide range of needs folks will be facing. There is a network of organizations to help ranging from the North Regional Center (350 E. Holding Avenue) which provides social services to ChurchNet where 16 churches and other civic organizations work together to help those in need with utility payments and some prescription drugs.
There is a fantastic website called Wake Network of Care that lists resources to help people in our county. There are a dozen main categories of resources and thousands of individual listings of service providers. You can sort by zip code (27587 for example) to find resources or you can filter the listings to show everything in a category within, say, 10 miles.
Wake Network of Care is also setting up a hub for COVID-19 Community Resources. There are more than a dozen major categories. This site was started this past Tuesday and is already operational. If you provide services and want to be added to the list, please contact Wake Network of Care.
Here is the url: https://wake.nc.networkofcare.org
In addition, The Northeast Community Coalition (NECC) is setting up conference calls to check in with the residents. The purpose is to make sure they are okay, understand their concerns about COVID-19 and impact that dislocations in the economy are having on them. These calls will also ask residents about their needs and identify resources to help them.
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2 Responses
Thank you for all your extra effort to compile the updated list of food distribution programs in wake forest.
It was George Shaw with the Northern Community Food Security Team who provided all that information. I just published it.