Candor NC

Part & Parcel is a package-free grocery store that exists to employ autistic individuals and model the strength of inclusive employment for the community. In 2023 Part & Parcel continued to expand on the ways in which it provided for our community. Through our partnership with Durham Community Fridges, we installed a pantry next to the store. Through the pantry and fridge, thousands of pounds of food is ecirulated in the community. This fridge has also provided a space for our community to share food with each other, so much so that a second fridge was recently installed. With one new location, we added a community garden full of fresh herbs and vegetables, all free for the taking. Through our partnership with Don't Wast Durham, we washed, sanitized and reused 8,143 jars. Through our partnerships with Farmer Foodshare and the West End Community Foundation, Inc. that the West end Free Market is possible. Our collective efforts have given access to high-quality produce and dry goods to the West End, Lyon Park, and Lakewood Communities. To date the free market has 322 members, prepared 672 ready to eat meals and fed 485 people by distributing 12,331 pounds of food to the community.

Education and Advocacy -- In our continuing efforts to platform the disabled and neurodivergent voices within our community, we held the Neur-Affirming Strategies in Action conference. Our keynote speakers were given the space to share their experience with a wider audience, highlighting areas where through dismantling ableist structures within our community and internalizing Disability Justice concepts through everyday life we can move closer towards a community that's sustainable and equitable for everyone. Among the 500 attendees, many were teachers from Durham public schools and local healthcare workers. We host a perspective series of events with speakers and discussions focused on the Autistic experience and the voices in the Autistic community.

Through our Torchlight Residency program, participants move through a curriculum of Disability Justice, weaving history with the present, unpacking the ways we have talked about, thought about, and treated Autistic, Neurodivergent, and Disabled people over time. This residency is a place to name, process, and respond to the internal and external manifestations of ableism and the ways that interests with the other held identities. Together, we explore the ways art can be a means of healing and an avenue of protest.