Beach Food Pantry

In 2022, the Beach Food Pantry had 8 distribution methods to get Food to hungry and/or Food insecure individuals experiencing a crisis or emergency situation in dare county, nc: 1) client-choice, myplate-aligned Food Pantry services - our flagship program, provided at our kitty hawk Pantry, provides 2 weeks of free groceries, based on family size. The Pantry is open monday through friday from 2-4 pm, excluding major holidays. In 2022, we served 2,560 individuals (or approximately 107,520 meals). 2) mobile Pantry special events - transportation to our office is a challenge for many of our clients as there is limited public transportation we have a van so that we could take Food out to areas of highest need. We consistently serve between 60-120 individuals at these distributions. 3) mass text distribution special events - in an effort to better serve our clients and reduce our waste, the Pantry also offers special "mass text distributions" when there is extra Food to share. A text message is sent to all clients from the calendar year so far alerting them to the opportunity. It is a more limited amount of Food per visit, but it does not count toward their annual maximum number of visits. The Pantry varies the days and times of these messages. 4)summer Food for kids 2022 - the Beach Food Pantry continued the program for 16 weeks this year. There were three potential methods for receiving Food and parents could pick whichever option worked best for them week to week. Parents could pick up at our main office monday - friday from 8 am-5 pm. They could pick up at manteo elementary school once a week during the times that school meals they offered over the summer were also available. They did not have to participate in the school meals as well, but we encouraged it. For all points south of Oregon inlet, we began offering delivery to their front door or office. Once again this year, parents ordered online and we were able to offer eggs, produce, dairy, meats, etc. That we otherwise could not have offered. 1,791 individuals from 446 house holds were served throught this program. 5) holiday meals - we provided 415 bags of groceries geared towards holiday meals for individuals that otherwise would not have been able to provide a meal for their families. We began offering an online ordering process for this service as well. Therefore, we were able to offer perishable product for these bags that we never had before, such as produce. Further, we were able to offer additional culturally-appropriate foods and products for restricted diets. 6) in 2022, we continued to provide delivery for individuals that were elderly and otherwise shut-in, as well as continuing our partnership with dare county social services to deliver to individuals and families testing positive for covid-19 and quarantining at home. 7) produce stands - we have a set of produce stands in the front parking lot. As extra produce becomes available through donations or purchases, we put it in the stands under a tent. We send out a mass text and post it on social media. No application or appointment is needed, and people in need can come and get as much as they can use during the times specified, or while supplies last, whichever comes firts. 8) Pantry garden - we began a community garden with two raised beds built by volunteers. We grow complementary produce items that we know clients enjoy, but we do not get through donations, like okra. We also grow some unusual items, like chinese eggplant, to allow clients to try new things and get them excited about fresh produce. The garden is not enclosed, so if a client was unable to come during our regular business hours, but needed some emergency Food to get through, they could pick what they needed. Finally, though not a distribution method, we also offer Food & nutrition supplement (fns) outreach. If clients are not receiving fns benefits, we can provide an appliation and/or assist them in filling out the application and getting it to social services.