Our Food Story

Since the day I began with this organization, almost 15 years ago, we have been growing our food story and I started thinking some while back, that our food story is so much more, it is impressive! You may not be aware that Hospitality House of Northwest N.C. operates four food programs. Our 24/7 Community Kitchen, serves three meals a day, not only to the clients who live onsite, but to every person in our housing programs offsite and anyone in need of a meal in the community. That adds up. In fact it has continued to add up since Hurricane Helene. Our Community Kitchen serves more meals than most restaurants in town, averaging over 19,000 meals a month!! 

 

Our Food Pantry, the only area pantry open seven days a week, averages 5,000 food boxes annually, last year distributing over 147,000 pounds of food to 977 households. Our Organic Gardens, the first of its kind in our area, were created, and initially funded as a pilot project for Heifer International, to provide fresh, healthy produce to our Food Pantry and Community Kitchen clients. Last years’ harvest added up to 2,500 pounds and over 2,100 eggs. Yes, I said eggs because we have our own flock of hens. 

 

​Our latest foray into food access was the Remote Food Lockers at Bethel School. This program, the first of its kind in rural America, was created during the COVID pandemic to assist seniors and families who had little or no access to fresh, locally grown food. We are currently serving 97 people and purchasing the food almost exclusively from the High Country Food Hub. 

 

These are stories worth telling! Ours is a food story worth sharing!

 

These food stories are not just about the programs, they are about the people who are impacted. If you think about your own life and how you tell stories of your family, they often center around favorite meals, celebrations, and times gathered around a table. Many in our area grew up with fresh food, grown from their gardens or raised and produced on small farms. We tried something different a few times in our Community Kitchen. We decided to set up round tables with chairs, instead of the regular efficient cafeteria style tables. We prepared, what many of us who grew up in the South would call, a Sunday dinner. On each table we placed the hot food in bowls, so people could serve themselves. A few of us stood back in the corners of the dining room and waited to serve sweet tea when people needed a refill. 

 

I will never forget the puzzled looks as the regular folks who ate there daily looked at those bowls. Then slowly, a few reached for a bowl and placed a scoop of hot potatoes on their plate and looked at their neighbor beside them and passed the bowl. As others watched they began to do the same, and the plates were filled with a very special dinner. As people ate, conversations started around the table and they began to ask, would you like some more when a plate was emptied and they passed the bowls. When the meal began to wind down, people began to carry the bowls to the kitchen so they could be washed. Conversations and laughter were still lingering. I will tell you, this was one of the most fulfilling meals I have ever been a part of. If there is a story that drives me to continue this important work of bringing food to the community, this is one of them. Food IS community.

 

Today, those 19,000 meals a month out of that same Community Kitchen is a daunting task with growing costs. However, I still remember the day we gave people a choice to serve themselves with the food we had cooked and to serve others who were sitting beside them and how it continues to drive our food stories to this day.