Because of you, more children will start the school day ready to learn, without the pang of hunger as a distraction. Our Back-to-School campaign reminds us that along with pencils and paper, children need a daily supply of food to take on new concepts, run on playgrounds, and socialize more successfully.
Our Community Health and Agriculture Education teams have collaborated to develop the new Food Shuttle Academy, an online learning platform with free, self-paced lessons on health, nutrition, agriculture, and more!
Our Spring Match challenge, made possible by generous funders, including SOLV Energy and the Mead Family Foundation, exceeded the $105,000 goal, raising an additional $70,000 to erase hunger!
Love, Tito’s has a heart for community gardens and increasing access to fresh, healthy foods. Their philanthropic Love, Tito’s Block to Block program, reconnects neighborhoods and creates community gardens and farms throughout the United States. Our hearts are in full bloom knowing that our Camden Street Garden will be the next beneficiary of Block to Block, allowing neighbors with mobility challenges to access our many activities more easily.
Last week in honor of 9/11, we were thrilled to have volunteers all across the Triangle help Inter-Faith Food Shuttle pack bags for BackPack Buddies, work on our Wake County Teaching Farm, and prep our new Urban Agriculture Training Center! Volunteers signed up as part of Activate Good's Activate Raleigh Day of Service.
Check out the photos from the work day at our Urban Ag Training Center - volunteers scraped paint off the windows (the building used to be an old skating rink), took up old carpet, washed walls to prep for painting, swept and mopped the floors, primed and painted walls, and helped with some maintenance outside. What amazing transformation can happen with the power of volunteers!
Wondering what will take place in our new Urban Ag Training Center? For one thing, Urban Ag training workshops! First up, we have both community and youth urban ag workshops!
We are proud to announce our first annual Plant the Pavement! Workshop Series, a collaborative effort to bring Growing Power's innovative model of food production and community empowerment to North Carolina.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is the only Growing Power Regional Outreach Training Center in North Carolina, and the only one in the country with a focus on training young people.
First Annual Urban Agriculture Workshop Series with Will Allen, MacArthur Genius Award winner & founder of Growing Power, Co-hosted by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Raleigh’s Longview School.
All proceeds from this purchase go to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.
You can purchase one duck or as many as you want. Individual ducks are $10 each and Corporate ducks are $250. On the day of the event the ducks will be simultaneously released to race swiftly down the Ol' Bull River. More information and contest rules here.
Prizes include Charlotte Bobcats vs. Miami Heat Basketball Tickets, Duke Men’s Basketball Tickets, tickets to see a Broadway Show at the DPAC and more! There's even a prize for the "Best Decorated Duck!"
How to Claim Your Duck(s) after purchase:
Option 1 - Bring your receipt to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, 1001 Blair Dr., Raleigh, by Sept. 28th, M-F 9am - 5pm
Option 2 - Bring your receipt to the American Tobacco Caompus on the day of the event, Sun. Oct. 7th, 1pm - 3:30pm
What Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Does in Durham
Your duck purchase will help support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's work to end hunger in Durham and throughout our service area including Durham, Wake, Orange, Chatham, Johnston, Edgecombe, and Nash counties. In Durham, we fight hunger through:
Food Recovery and Distribution & Mobile Markets: We distribute free fresh produce through our numerous partner agencies in Durham as well as our monthly Mobile Markets at West Durham Baptist Church and Iglesia El Buen Pastor.
Community Gardens: In the West End Neighborhood, IFFS works with and employs neighborhood youth to grow food. Our corporate community garden at BCBSNC grows food for IFFS's Plant a Row for the Hungry program, which is distributed to agencies in Durham that feed the hungry.
Nutrition Education: We teach nutrition through Food Matters healthy cooking demonstrations at our monthly Mobile Markets and through Cooking Matters classes at community organizations like the Durham Teen Center, Durham Housing Authority, and Bull City Fit at the Edison Johnson Recreational Center.
BackPack Buddies: We provide weekend meals for children in need at Eastway Elementary, Y.E. Smith Elementary, Glenn Elementary, C.C. Spaulding Elementary, Forestview Elementary, and the John Avery Boys & Girls Club.
In-School Pantries at Southern High School, Northern High School, Hillside New Technical High School, and Neal Middle School.
Thank you for your support, and see you at Family Fest!
IFFS is very excited to share our NFG Internship program to assist in the work of the Nutrition, Farms and Gardens Programs! These internships are a valuable training experience for participants, an ideal way to get involved in your local community and work on growing a sustainable and accessible local food system. We hope the experience will be valuable to participants in providing them with skills as well as a broader understanding of issues related to food insecurity in our community.
Email the contact person listed below if you would like a Volunteer Internship Application.
Seeking two graduate level interns to assist in the management of two Wake County Community Gardens by helping engage community and youth, plan educational activities, lead small research projects and attend to garden needs. Interns will also assist with Urban Ag projects focused on increasing food access, creating jobs for urban youth and food justice advocacy.
Required: experience working with youth/community; knowledge of gardening; enthusiasm and dependability.
Desired: Spanish-speaking. Minimum commitment of 20 hours per week for at least 12 weeks. Great opportunity for hands on experience, training and mentorship from nutrition, farm and garden experts.
Seeking three Urban Ag Interns that share passion for youth, soil and food. The interns will help direct community food justice awareness programs. The base of these programs is healthy community food access. The interns would help with urban soil creation and production: composting as a community is paramount. The interns will assist with creating soil in an urban environment from both a production and a policy viewpoint. The interns will help with research and advocacy based around urban, young adult job creation.
Work with our Farm Manager to specialize in an area of operation, including livestock, vermi-composting, pest control, greenhouse production, and vegetable production at IFFS Teaching Farm in Raleigh. This is a hands-on working position with project deliverables, such as instruction manuals, signage, and standard operating procedures.
Work with our youth garden employees to develop opportunities for selling produce they grow in the garden. Fall garden hours are Monday evenings and Saturday mornings so availability one or both days is needed. Internship will involve marketing, developing procedures and customer relations as well as mentoring teens.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is the newest Regional Outreach Training Center for Will Allen’s internationally recognized community food organization Growing Power. We are seeking an intern to help put together our first annual “Plant the Pavement!” workshop series, a set of intensive hands-on urban ag workshops co-taught by Growing Power and IFFS Staff.
Required: A demonstrated interest in community development, sustainable agriculture, or social justice. Full day availability November 8-11.
Desired: Bilingual (Spanish), experience with curriculum development, graphic design skills.
The Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training, United Piedmont (CRAFT-UP) is a coalition of new and established farmers dedicated to creating a more just and sustainable food system in Central NC through farmer-to-farmer trainings, social events, and community resource development. We are seeking two interns to assist with outreach to regional farmers, event planning, and developing a comprehensive public database of available farm land in the region.
Required: Outgoing personality, comfortable speaking in public and developing new relationships, excellent writing skills, and access to transportation to rural areas.
Desired: basic knowledge of market farming, Bilingual (Spanish), experience with community resource mapping, web development skills.
Program descriptions, Internship Logistics, and more information available here: http://foodshuttle.org/_public/documents/87/Food_Shuttle_Nutrition_Farms_and_Gardens_Volunteer_Internships_Fall_2012.docx
Congratulations to our most recent Cooking Matters graduates!!
Over the course of six weeks, fifteen kids from Apex UMC’s Fiesta Cristiana Spanish worship service chopped, sliced, mixed, and roasted on their way to healthy eating. Led by enthusiastic volunteer nutrition and culinary instructors, the children experimented with new foods, learned the importance of eating a variety of colors of fruits and vegetables, and practiced reading food labels. Some new favorite healthy recipes included the Pasta with Roasted Vegetables, Baked Flaked Chicken, and of course the Veggie Pizza! Look out for some super future chefs in Apex!
One in five children in North Carolina is hungry. Heartbreakingly, that number jumps to one in four children under the age of five. Inter-Faith Food Shuttle works to meet the needs of those children when other resources are not available, and you can help. On August 23th at Crabtree Valley Mall and Cary Crossroads from 6am-6pm, Mix 101.5 WRAL-FM is holding their annual BackPack Buddies Food Drive for IFFS. One of our Children's Hunger Relief programs, BackPack Buddies provides weekend meals for food insecure children who otherwise may not eat on the weekends. For the children most in need, the lunch they receive through the free and reduced lunch program on Friday may be the last square meal they eat until breakfast at school on Monday morning. We provide backpacks with 6 balanced meals and two healthy snacks each weekend and break throughout the school year so that they can come to school nourished and ready to learn. This year, we reached more kids than ever before, but we need your support in order to continue to expand the program and provide this service.
Vanna Fox, Bill Jordan, Lynda Loveland, David Crabtree, and other MIX personalities will be live all day from the event. Each year, we are amazed by the generosity and compassion of this community! There are even some individuals who choose to donate whatever they can because they know what it's like to be a hungry child; they were food insecure as children and now want to give back. Mix 101.5 WRAL-FM’s Vanna Fox shares one such story from a previous year:
In 2008, the event raised $6000 and 71,000 pounds of food for children in need right here in the Triangle. In 2009, the event raised $27,000 and 10,000 pounds of food, and it has continued to get bigger and better each year. Last year, we raised 21,000 lbs of food and $55,000 Let’s continue that trend this year and raise more than we’ve ever raised before! You can donate money or food in any amount - every dollar and pound counts!
More true stories from people involved with the BackPack Buddies program:
“A family support worker told me that she had been at the home of some brothers who participated in the program on several days when they arrived home from school. She called me to tell me, ‘you would think it is Christmas because they cannot wait to open the bags up and see what food they have that week! They especially like the individual packs of peanut butter.’”
“When asking a 1st grade student what type of food he ate on the weekend, he replied ‘oh... we don’t eat on the weekend.’ When I asked him if he would like to be a ‘BackPack Buddy’ and explained the program to him, he started jumping up and down with an excited look on his face and exclaimed ‘YES, YES, YES!’”
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle also runs a number of other children's hunger relief programs that serve in total over 2,000 children a month through our After-school SNACKS program, Kids Cafes, In-school Pantries, and Summer Feeding. As in our other pro-active hunger-relief programs, we focus on wholesome, healthful foods that provide a foundation for health and a bright future.
IFFS works with dedicated Cooking Matters satellite partners to help even more families learn to cook healthy meals on a limited budget. This 'Quick Chef' Cooking Matters class in Warren County is run through our UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention satellite partnership!
Thank you HPDP for all your hard work in making sure Cooking Matters throughout North Carolina.
In the West End Neighborhood Community Garden in Durham, IFFS works with neighborhood youth. The garden is a place to grow food and to grow ourselves as we connect to each other, to the soil, and to the food we cultivate. Not only does the garden provide a source of fresh produce and herbs for the community, it also provides jobs and income for young people. We employ teens from the community to work in the garden there. As we all share these experiences, we contribute to a strong and vibrant community. Here are some creative pieces by the teens on what they think of community gardening in the West End:
Eshe Brooks:
Livestrong, Like an elderly citizen standing Tall. Livestrong, Like a young baby. Beginning to walk. Livestrong, Like an oak tree holding On to the ground. Livestrong, Like vegetables growing By the pound. Livestrong, AND Don’t give up Livestong, AND You will make it.
Tyreek Frye:
My first day in the garden was great! I’m very proud too have this job. I love to be able to think how I’m getting paid for something I like doing. I love being able to water the plants and help the plants grow and help them live longer.
Melisha Nicholson:
Me and the tomato we both are quiet Me and the tomato like to help people Me and the tomato both live in this tall world. But we are just good friends.
Gene Aiken:
Over the course of my work time here in the garden I have experienced many things. One such experience was how so many people enter the garden as volunteers and visitors. Each person was different and so I had to react in a different way its really helped to improve my social skills. It also helped to improve my connections. Besides the benefits socially, my work experience has also improved. I feel like I would be much more capable in a job now then I was originally. The job has also helped me develop a satisfactory way to budget my money being able to make room for wants and needs successfully.
They can farm, and now they can cook, too! On July 24, apprentices from the Young Farmer Training Program (YFTP) graduated from our Cooking Matters course. Cooking Matters is an interactive, cooking-based nutrition program that equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to improve their nutrition practices, eating habits, and food budgeting skills.
The first day, volunteer Chef James taught the apprentices all about the process of making pizza dough. To demonstrate, the teens were turned into human gluten, forming the elastic network that traps the carbon dioxide gas released by the yeast. Eventually, everyone turned back into teens who really love to eat yummy, healthy pizza!
Over the six week course, YFTP apprentices chopped fresh tomatoes to make salsa, processed basil into pesto, and transformed sage into a savory topping. With volunteer Chef James, they baked, mixed, stirred, and poured their energy into the creation of healthy meals using produce fresh from our Wake County Teaching Farm. Our nutrition volunteers Anne and Laura taught the apprentices about whole grains, making choices about fats in our food, and how to read nutrition labels. The apprentices left the course armed with the knowledge to make healthy food choices and the kitchen skills and recipes to create masterful culinary dishes for their families and friends from what they grow.
If you would like to volunteer and be part of a class as a chef, nutritionist, or class support, contact nutrition@foodshuttle.org. You can also volunteer as a cooking intern for the Young Farmer Training Program and help provide our Young Farmers with nutritious meals during their work days on the farm. Email Ricky@foodshuttle.org for more information.
