The Holly Springs Food Cupboard is celebrating 10 years of making a difference in the lives of community members in need.
As we write this article in early April, Coronavirus Disease 2019 is sweeping through our state and nation, and we are humbly reminded both of why the Cupboard is very much needed in Holly Springs, and of why the Cupboard is able to operate. We would be nowhere without our dedicated volunteers and generous community members and partners who are ever-willing to help people in need of food assistance.
Throughout our first decade, every time the Cupboard has experienced a need, every step along the way, and even now during this time that is difficult for all of us, our community has filled that need. What an amazing community we have. We are so grateful.
Ten Years Ago
If you lived in Holly Springs and needed food assistance 10 years ago, you had to find it in another town. More than an inconvenience, the distance provided challenges for Holly Springs residents with limited transportation and those who worked jobs and couldn’t take time off to travel to another town to receive supplemental food.
Local resident Carol Moran, an avid volunteer with a number of groups, recognized the need for food assistance service in Holly Springs. With the support of town government, the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce, and local churches and organizations, she formed a steering committee that included Pat Haggard, who currently serves as Executive Director of the Cupboard.
“Carol saw the need and set about meeting it,” Haggard said. “Since our first distribution 10 years ago beneath a tree next to the Holly Springs United Methodist Church to the purchase and then expansion of the Cupboard’s permanent home with a productive garden, the Holly Springs Food Cupboard has been a reflection of God’s blessings and the giving hearts of our community.”
As the Cupboard got off the ground, Western Wake Crisis Ministry, an Apex nonprofit that provides food, financial and housing assistance, education, and more, mentored Cupboard volunteers and lent the Cupboard space in its building to store food collected from drives – the first of which was held at the Holly Springs Farmers Market. Holly Springs United Methodist Church allowed the Cupboard to distribute food on the church’s grounds and, later, inside their annex.
Without a permanent home base in Holly Springs, volunteers visited Western Wake in Apex the day before food distribution to prepare and bag goods. Volunteers would travel back to the nonprofit the following day to collect the bags and return to Holly Springs to share the food. From the beds of pickup trucks, bags of food were distributed, and while the selection lacked variety, it was a start. Any leftover food was driven back to Apex.
“We helped a lot of families under that tree,” said Wanda Holloway, Distribution Director with the Cupboard. “Sometimes the weather was harsh – rain, cold – but we were steadfast because people needed our help.”
As the need for food assistance grew in Holly Springs, so did the need for a permanent location in town.
“We needed a larger place,” Holloway said. “We wanted to be able to serve all those who came to the Food Cupboard for assistance.”
Finding a Home
With expanding numbers of people in need of food assistance, and the inconvenience of hauling food from town to town, the search was on for a home base with enough space for parking and a garden. A centrally located home off W. Holly Springs Rd. was identified and purchased, thanks to support from the community during a capital campaign.
Renovating the home into a functioning and practical facility required a number of volunteer groups. Renovations included converting the bathroom to be handicapped accessible, enclosing the carport to allow additional space, and, later, expanding the Cupboard for additional food storage. None of the projects would have been possible without many community groups. Teams from Triangle Community Church, Sunrise United Methodist, Apex United Methodist and other area churches, Scouts, the Seniors with Attitude and Tools (SWAT) team, groups from businesses and countless others have come together throughout the Cupboard’s years in the home to continuously improve the facility.
Growing More than Produce
The transformation of a patch of land behind the Cupboard building into productive gardens tended by multiple community groups and volunteers has been notable. The garden does more than provide healthy food for clients. Extra seedlings are given to clients to grow at their homes, younger community members are given the opportunity to volunteer and learn more about gardening, and garden work is used as a way to encourage social re-engagement for people with aphasia, a communication disorder that impacts a person’s ability to use language in the forms of speech, writing, reading and listening.
The garden is possible thanks to the Holly Springs Garden Club, which has cultivated the garden and shaped its offerings from the very beginning when it was a mere three rows without a fence, and most everything planted was eaten by deer. A team of volunteers from Novartis (now Seqirus) installed a fence around an expanded garden area and since then the garden has abounded in size and variety, thanks to the help of dedicated volunteers.
Garden yield includes a variety – tomatoes, peppers, collards, cucumbers, squash, figs, chard, onions and other vegetables grow from the ground, along arches, and in buckets and raised beds. Flowers also are grown, attracting pollinators and providing an extra treat for clients. Bees, cared for by a local beekeeper, and chickens, cared for by a group from Holly Ridge Middle, also are part of the variety.
Cupboard Garden Director Jerry DeWitt and Holly Springs Garden Club members teach visiting children about gardening techniques and sustainability. The TAProots group also tends to the garden. TAP, which stands for Triangle Aphasia Project, is a group that aims to maximize communicative potential and reduce barriers to social re-engagement for people with aphasia.
“I find the garden to be very therapeutic, too,” Holloway said. “I love seeing all the flowers and the vegetables growing, knowing that we can provide fresh produce out of our garden.”
Extra plant starts are offered to clients, who can grow vegetables in their own yards.
“Not only are we giving people food for a day, but we’re offering them opportunities to provide food for themselves,” Haggard said.
Community Support
The Cupboard is a 100% volunteer organization and dependent on support from the community. And with every challenge, from before the Cupboard completed its first distribution, to raising funds to purchase and expand a facility, to meeting increased needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Holly Springs community has come through, often in ways that touch hearts.
“Holly Springs Elementary – I remember one time, it took almost five cars to load all the food they collected,” Holloway says of one distribution that totaled almost 4,500 pounds. “Those kids were like little busy bees loading bags on the truck.”
Haggard remembers another Cub Scout food drive where a lengthy sidewalk was completely hidden beneath bags of food collected.
Holloway said, “It’s such a rewarding experience helping others.”
Listing all the groups, local businesses and people who have gone above and beyond to help the Cupboard might fill all the pages of this magazine. It includes Western Wake Crisis Ministry and local churches that helped the Cupboard get off the ground; partner agencies, like the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina; local grocery stores, restaurants and businesses that donate food; fundraising supporters, like people who have organized golf tournaments and fashion shows; the Chamber of Commerce, which has been instrumental in supporting the Cupboard; and a diversity of many community groups: Our local food drop-off sites, the Holly Springs Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, Kraft YMCA, schools and churches, boy and girl scout troops – the list goes on.
More than food and monetary donations, people with skills needed by the Cupboard have helped at critical moments – lawyers have given their service for gratis; insurance agents have patiently explained needs and policies; accountants; signage businesses; even this magazine you’re now reading, Suburban Living, and other media outlets have generously supported the Cupboard.
“It’s amazing how every time there’s been a need, it’s been met,” Haggard said. “I feel it’s been in God’s hands opening hearts. Everyone has been so good working with us.”
The Cupboard Stands Out
In its first 10 years, the Holly Springs Food Cupboard has been honored with recognition from local and regional groups. It also stands out to clients.
The Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce has recognized the Cupboard twice with its Parrish “Ham” Womble Distinguished Service Award. In 2017, the Cupboard was awarded the Community Foundation Award by the Triangle Commercial Association of Realtors. The Cupboard also has been chosen as partner agency of the year with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, which also designated the Cupboard as a Healthy Pantry.
“That means we’re doing things right,” Haggard said. “We’re serving people in a respectful and efficient manner, and we’re trying to be a healthy pantry using the neighbors, businesses and resources that are available to us. Our records are straight. It’s a big honor.”
Clients also recognize the quality of food and service provided by the Cupboard. Clients often comment on how they appreciate the cleanliness of the Cupboard, the friendliness of volunteers, the fresh food and the variety of offerings that includes birthday cakes and flowers – items that could be out of clients’ budgets at grocery stores.
In addition to non-perishable goods that come from food drives, the Cupboard distributes vegetables and other nutritious foods to clients. Grocery and food stores donate baked goods and produce, Olive Garden donates soups, Butcher’s Market donates deli items, Edible Arrangements donates pineapple, Pizza Hut donates pizza – and the list goes on.
“We receive many good items from a lot of places thanks to restaurants and food service businesses,” Holloway said.
The Cupboard recently began offering healthy food tastings, which allow clients to try new foods and recipes. After sampling the food, clients bring home a bag with all the ingredients and the recipe to make the dish at their homes.
“We have people who tell us they have lost weight and become healthier because they can come to our Cupboard to have fresh vegetables to eat that they say they couldn’t afford at a regular grocery store,” Holloway said.
Looking Ahead
The Cupboard anticipates continuing to grow to meet an increasing need in the community. In 2019, the Cupboard served more clients than ever before but saw those clients fewer times than clients seen in previous years – perhaps a result of new families coming to the area who need help until they receive their first paycheck and get settled.
Ten years ago, the Cupboard served about 43 families a month. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Cupboard was serving about 172 families on average per month, though at times the number has swelled to more than 200 families per month. Earlier this year in March, the Cupboard served 285 families with 1,048 individuals in them.
The Cupboard now also offers track-out bags to clients with students on summer vacation or tracked out of school to help provide food when school breakfasts and lunches are not available. In March of this year alone, the Cupboard gave out 246 track-out bags to students out of school.
“We have helped a lot of people in the timespan we’ve been giving out food,” Holloway said. “Not only have we helped parents, but kids, too, by providing track-out bags.”
Celebrate with Us
To celebrate its first 10 years, the Cupboard is planning an early evening reception on June 5 at the Leslie-Alford-Mims House, which donated the venue for the celebration. (Please check the Cupboard’s website at www.hsfoodcupboard.org for updates on this reception due to the possible impact of the current pandemic.) Everyone who has been involved in the Cupboard during its history is invited: volunteers, clients, anyone of any age who has organized or contributed to a food drive, scouts, charitable donors, nonprofit and business partners.
“We all really love being here and working with each other, helping clients, and seeing good things happen,” Haggard said. “The generosity of our community and the dedication of our volunteers cannot be underestimated.”
