There’s a sign off West Holly Springs Road beside a semicircular gravel driveway that leads to an older ranch-style home. The sign features two open doors framing text indicating this house is home to the Holly Springs Food Cupboard.
And, perhaps more importantly, the sign makes clear with its display of doors open wide that the Cupboard welcomes everyone. Whether you’re in need of food or wanting to help — to do something that matters and makes a real difference locally — you’re welcome here.
Everything at the food cupboard is donated, and the Cupboard is run entirely by volunteers who gather and transport food to the shelter, organize the shelves and pack food to be distributed, tend the garden, coordinate fundraisers, greet clients and distribute food, maintain the Cupboard’s grounds… The list of what it takes to run the Cupboard goes on. It’s a big job, but we live in a community with a big heart — a community that continues to step up to meet the needs of local families.
“It’s exciting to see it all come together, the generosity of the community and the thankfulness of the community,” says Carol Moran, who co-directs the Cupboard with Pat Haggard.
A need — in Holly Springs?
Living in a community as generally affluent as Holly Springs, it’s easy to make assumptions about the well-being of your neighbors. It’s easy to fool yourself into believing the need is not here — or that the need is not that great. But it is; the Cupboard distributes about 2,500 lbs. of food every week.
Hunger doesn’t happen just to people who live outside neighborhoods where every home has a two-car garage. Hunger also happens to people in those very neighborhoods. It happens to people who have lost their jobs. To people whose spouses have taken the finances and left them to fend for themselves and their children. To grandparents on fixed incomes who find themselves caring for their grandchildren.
“Everyone goes through a hard time sometimes,” Pat says, noting some of the Cupboard’s clients come from the town’s richest neighborhoods. “We get people from all over.” “Stuff happens in life, and it’s not always fair,” Carol said, adding that she’s also seen clients get back on their feet, find a job, and bring in donations for other people in need.
The Cupboard serves 35-45 families every week giving out not just canned and dry goods donated by the community but also milk, eggs, produce, meat, baked goods and more. Last Thanksgiving, the Cupboard gave away more than 175 turkeys and dinner fixings.
The Cupboard also provides school snacks for students who would not ordinarily have them — snacks that the students’ teachers could be providing out of their own pockets if the Cupboard wasn’t here. During summers or when tracked out, students who typically receive lunch assistance at school are given lunch kits from the Cupboard.
“We are here to help families get through hard times and provide seniors nourishment they would not normally be getting,” Carol said.
Inside the Cupboard
It’s early Thursday afternoon, the day the Cupboard distributes food from 2-5 p.m. A few cars are parked in front of the Cupboard, and people are beginning to gather on the ramp leading to the front door. Inside, volunteers have been busy, packing and shelving dry goods, setting out produce and perishable foods — bundles of rich green broccoli, baskets of cheery red apples, stacks of packaged mushrooms.
Soon the front doors will open to a sunny room. The walls are painted a bright yellow. A shelf with an assortment of donated children’s books rests in a corner. It’s in this room volunteers will check in clients and, if needed, help them apply for food stamps using a public WiFi hotspot provided by the town government. Beyond the room, volunteers work in the Cupboard kitchen. Almost every room in the house — and an additional room built onto the house by volunteers — holds food. Shelves are stocked with canned vegetables and soups, grains and pastas. Freezers and refrigerators lining the walls hold frozen meat, milk and eggs.
While dry and packaged goods are contributed from the Holly Springs community — groups and churches, neighborhood food drives and individuals — local businesses also provide leftover food to the Cupboard. Clients can select produce and baked goods from local Food Lion stores and Lowes, soups and pastas from Olive Garden, pastries from Starbucks, and pineapple from Edible Arrangements.
Produce — last year about 1,800 lbs — also is harvested from the gardens managed by the Holly Springs Garden Club in the Cupboard’s backyard. Eagle Scout candidate Chris Harris recently built an irrigation system for the garden that travels along the neat rows and past a smiling scarecrow.
Holly Springs Food Cupboard partners also include the Food Bank, Kraft YMCA and InterFaith Food Shuttle Mobile Market. “We appreciate all of the support our community gives to the Food Cupboard and those in need,” Carol says. “It’s amazing how open and sharing all the agencies and churches are here in town.”
Help Welcomed
The need for volunteers at the Cupboard is always present, Carol and Pat say, as is the need for food donations. “Volunteers — that’s what makes us run,” Pat says.
During summer months, donations of food tend to lag. Food can be donated to the Cupboard Mondays, 9-11 a.m., and Thursdays, 12-5 p.m. and at other drop-off sites listed on the Cupboard’s website. For parents with young children, organizing a food drive is one way the whole family can get involved.
During the week, volunteers are needed to sort and organize food, pack bags and stack shelves, and transport donated food to the Cupboard.
Unable to help during the week? Volunteers in the garden are needed on Saturdays, June through August especially.
While volunteers must be at least age 18 to work inside the facility, younger volunteers can work in the garden. Teens ages 15-19 can participate in the youth volunteer day held one Saturday a month.
Are you more of an administrator? The Cupboard is looking for a person to coordinate food drives with churches and schools.
Visit www.hsfoodcupboard.org to express your interest in volunteering. Once you submit the online form, someone from the Cupboard will contact you.
Need food?
You’re welcome to it. Visit the food cupboard at 621 West Holly Springs Road any Thursday between 2-5 p.m. Bring photo identification and one other proof of where you live, like a water bill. That’s all the Cupboard needs; it’s as simple as that.
Want to contribute?
The Holly Springs Food Cupboard is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Annual fund raisers include Fashion for Food in the spring and a golf tournament in the fall. This year’s golf tournament fundraiser is Sept. 14 on the course at 12 Oaks. But you can donate to the Cupboard anytime at www.hsfoodcupboard.org.
