Town ready to plan for buses and food

Tuesday evening Jenny Green with Go Triangle, the regional public transportation authority, presented the plans for increased bus service across Wake County and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area to the Wake Forest commissioners and mayor.

Green stressed that the goal is making public transportation available to as many people as possible and reminded them that children 12 and under ride free on all buses and teens, 13 to 18 years, also ride free.

Afterward, the commissioners had a lot of questions. Commissioner Brian Pate noted an unserved area near Heritage High School on the east side of town. Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon asked if the Go Raleigh buses that serve the current loop route in town could have Go Wake Forest on the side. The Go Raleigh signage might confuse people.

Another question was about the planned hub on Falls of the Neuse, but Green explained it will provide connections for all-day service and other benefits. There is money in the area-wide plan for new bus stations along with the expanded bus service.

There was agreement Wake Forest should work with Rolesville, which will get a local bus as well as an express bus to Raleigh.

The plan in Wake Forest is to have two loop buses running in opposite directions. “We’ve got to get more people on the buses, and they need to come by more often,” Pate said.

Green and Chip Russell, director of the Wake Forest Development Services Division, agreed now is the time for the mayor and commissioners to decide what they want in the transportation plan for Wake Forest. Mayor Vivian Jones agreed; “This is an opportunity for you to say what you want,” she told the commissioners.

Drew Brown, who is the head of the ?????, went to the podium in a new role, as the head of the Wake Forest Food Network, a part of the Capital Area Food Network. Brown said he is comfortable in that role because in his day job “I know people who have problems. I have a relationship with those customers.” They are people who have problems having enough money for food after the rent and other necessities are paid. They usually have limited or none rainy-day funds.

To start, he said, he put together an ad hoc committee that held a food security summit in August and began to reach out to all the community groups who are meeting various needs. Those include the food pantries, the summer nutrition programs for children at the Northern Regional Center and Olive Branch Baptist Church, the community gardens on Spring Street, the Wake Forest Presbyterian Church and the Wake Forest Baptist Church, the largest with 175 members and a variety of gardens. Brown said the Baptist Church garden was one of the largest suppliers of fresh foods to Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry.

Brown said he was very proud that Wake Forest was one of the first municipalities to join the Capital Area Food Network. At the summit, the group ended up listing 41 action items.

Some are simple. Now Tri-Area has two storage sheds and as it receives donations of staple foods it has to handle a can of beans seven times. If there was just one storage building that would cut the number of times the can of beans is touched to three.

George Shaw with the Wake Forest Area Hunger Ministry joined Brown at the podium to give a list of needed items at the small food pantries, a list that included used (or new) laptops for record-keeping. He also said the small pantries need “a lot more infrastructure and administration.”

Pate asked, “If a business wanted to help, who would they write a check to? What would $100 do – or $200?” Later he said, “There are a lot of good people in Wake Forest who would want to help,” and asked how to donate a laptop.

The mayor said Brown’s group needs to come up with a list in ways the town can help, specific things the town can do. “”I’m thrilled to death that you are doing this.”

“I want you to know you have the full support of this board,” Pate said, and the mayor added that as the board discusses town projects at the annual retreat, “this may be one of the things we want to work on next year.”

Besides Shaw, the other people accompanying Brown were Ross Yeager, the director of the Northern Regional Center; Sydney Klein with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension and Capital Area Food Network; and Gene Cross, head of the Wake Forest Baptist Church Community Garden and director of ChurchNet, which uses funds from area churches to assist families with utility bills and prescription medicine costs.