NEW HANOVER COUNTY — While many families will gather around the Thanksgiving table to partake in a feast, there are some Cape Fear residents who are food-insecure and struggle to access nutritious meals.
READ MORE: Cost escalates for Northside grocery store, county seeks partners for financial help
Multiple organizations exist countywide to assist, offering access to fresh foods, boxes of nonperishables, and even “prescriptions,” which are doled out to patients who are deemed food insecure by physicians. These efforts have shifted the number of food insecure children from 1 in 4 to 1 in 8 over the last decade, according to the NC Child Data dashboard.
However, the data comes with a caveat — based on the relief from the pandemic and less opportunities for nonprofit interaction — and is also lagging by two years. The last study was completed pre-pandemic. The next data set won’t be released until later this year and encompass information from 2020 and 2021.
NourishNC executive director Steve McCrossan described the trend of food insecurity as a “rollercoaster.” The nonprofit’s mission is to provide healthy food to hungry children.
More than 8,000 children were food insecure in New Hanover County in 2021, and NourishNC doled out 1,000 food prescriptions last year.
“We have seen the need soar over the last couple years, all our programs have grown dramatically,” he said. “If we’re growing dramatically, food insecurity should go down.”
Except the numbers coexist in several nuanced ways.
First, government programs enacted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic led to additional financial relief for families, more access to services and assurances low-income programs would not be terminated.
Since much of the assistance ended — such as emergency allotments for the SNAP program and removing the work requirement for food stamps — McCrossen wonders if there will be another surge in the number of hungry families seeking help in the region.
Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina executive director of Wilmington Beth Gaglione said the numbers it receives from a national database are “encouraging” in terms of food insecurity but also explained it varies from what she sees on a day-to-day basis.
In addition to the pandemic programs ending, Gaglione said “food prices have risen dramatically,” adding to the need for families.
She said outreach has remained heightened since the pandemic in its five-county region, which includes New Hanover, Pender, Brunswick, Columbus and Duplin. Of its 120 partner agencies it distributes to — such as NourishNC, Coastal Horizons, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard and more than a dozen churches — the Food Bank is reporting a 60% increase in need over pre-pandemic levels.
“To some degree, our partners have gotten used to this new level of people they’re serving,” Gaglione said. “Because increases have sustained, it’s become the new normal.”
Pre-pandemic the food bank averaged handing out up to 10 million pounds annually. In the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic, March through September 2020, there were unprecedented numbers of people accessing food services. In fiscal year 2019-2020, the food bank distributed the equivalent of nearly 9 million meals from its Wilmington branch. According to its 2020-2021 data, nearly 93,950 people in its five-county service area faced hunger during the pandemic.
“I’m quite certain people were exposed to emergency food services that did not know they existed before,” Gaglione said. “The network of hunger relief agencies did an excellent job finding those people falling through the cracks.”
Last year, the Food Bank distributed 13.1 million pounds of food, 50% of which was fresh produce and 67% perishable.
The increase can likely be attributed to the Food Bank’s recent move into a much larger location, which is able to handle and safely store more food. The 35,000-square-foot facility at 1000 Greenfield Street, which opened in May, offers 80% more freezer and cooler space to store produce, meat and dairy items.
“It’s unfair to say there’s an unprecedented dramatic increase in food we’re distributing because we’re so much better positioned now than we were a year ago today,” Gaglione said.
In areas where partner agencies are difficult to retain, such as Duplin, the Food Bank has offered monthly pop-up markets to fill the void until another nonprofit steps in. It also operates a few programs on behalf of the federal and state government and helps connect individuals with resources, such as SNAP benefits, to increase access to other sources of food.
Most recently, the Food Bank has participated in the state’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot program — a niche state-run initiative Gaglione thinks could be the future of expanding food access, especially for low-income individuals recovering from an illness.
The pilot program refers individuals to resources that help alleviate social determinants to healthcare, such as transportation, housing, employment and food.
The HOP program started in June 2022, the food bank has helped individuals who are referred mostly to the food bank’s partner organizations. The capacity varies for each agency.
“We have access to the product and distribute it to organizations who distribute it to the client,” Gaglione explained.
However, the food bank does manage a few of its own cases since the volume of need is so great.
“As we look into the future, and talk about who needs access to food, the HOP program is something we expect to see more of,” Gaglione said. “All of us in the hunger relief network would get more involved.”
One of the Food Bank’s partner agencies, NourishNC has seen a dramatic increase in usage for its Food Farmacy. It’s a food prescription program first launched in 2018 in partnership with Novant, but has since branched out to include five additional pediatricians’ offices.
When doctors are screening patients and checking vitals, they’re also asking questions related to food insecurity. Eligible families can then shop at the Market on Market year-round.
“What we love about it, the minute they determine you’re food insecure, they’re giving you a box of food right inside the doctor’s office, then getting a prescription for fresh food you pick up from us,” McCrossen said.
During the pandemic, NourishNC provided 250 boxes per prescription. The decline was related to stay-at-home orders and a decrease in physical doctor’s office visits.
“Keep in mind, Covid led to a lot of tele-medicine,” McCrossan said. “So are we seeing a surge or are we seeing a return to what would have been normal?”
In 2022, NourishNC experienced a 75% increase, distributing 1,038 food boxes and prescriptions, which amounted to 32,000 pounds of food.
When families arrive at NourishNC’s headquarters at 3606 Market St. to pick up their prescription’s groceries, it provides staff the opportunity to present its other services, such as the backpack program. The initiative provides children in pre-K through fifth grade with three nutritious meals a day, plus inconspicuously sends them home with nutritious food to eat through the weekend.
NourishNC also launched its Market on Market, a welcoming, bilingual, full-service grocery store; it served 3,000 families last year with children referred by school personnel, doctors’ offices or community social workers.
“If you need it, we have it,” McCrossen said.
All NourishNC’s programs aim to be low-barrier and provide a “dignified” way to receive groceries.
“We look at [prescriptions] as an entryway,” McCrossen said. “It’s great to solve a temporary problem but we want to see them connected to other programs.”
Feast Down East, aimed at growing the local food system by partnering with 30 farmers to increase access to fresh food, also began a prescription program, Food Rx, in October. The nonprofit’s newest initiative mirrors that of NourishNC’s but on a different scale. It also applies to adults.
Right now, the pilot program is offering one-time $20 vouchers for families who screen for food insecurity at one of its three Novant partner clinics — Coastal Family Medicine, an OBGYN office on Shipyard Boulevard and Zimmer Cancer Center.
Patients are screened for food insecurity and issued a voucher, i.e. prescription. They’re presented with two questions and check responses ranging from “often true, sometimes true and never true”:
- Within the past 12 months we worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more.
- Within the past 12 months the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.
The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.
“In general, we know that food insecurity is associated with low fruit and vegetable intake, and poor mental and physical health outcomes including depression, anxiety, diabetes, and heart disease,” Feast Down East research and development consultant Allie Reimold said.
So far community members have redeemed 271 vouchers, equaling $4,430 worth of fresh food.
Vouchers can be used at Feast Down East’s Local Motive Mobile Market to purchase affordable produce, as well as eggs, meat, honey and cheese. The market is parking at each of the clinics on a routine basis to ensure access. The Mobile Market is also parked weekly in or near USDA-designated food deserts — areas with limited access to grocery stores and within Census tracts where more than 20% of the population is living below the federal poverty level.
“We try to keep things as affordable as possible to patients,” Food Rx manager Sussanah Sprat said.
For example, a pound of potatoes is $1, ensuring a $20 voucher covers enough to feed a family, not just an individual.
The cost of the vouchers is being covered by Novant, who allocated $20,000 to the pilot after Feast Down East approached the hospital about collaborating.
Novant began its own food box and food pharmacy program in 2020. It has since provided more than 3,000 boxes of food, available at hospital facilities and outpatient locations. The boxes contain enough food for three to five days and contain nonperishables, such as spaghetti, canned vegetables and simple, ready-to-eat meals.
Based on Novant’s internal report conducted from its food box program, it recommended the creation of a mobile produce market that could meet patients where they are to improve food access, Reimold said. That’s where Feast Down East comes in.
Feast Down East also received a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield last year to cover the purchase of a van and additional equipment needed to start up the Food Rx program.
“If it goes well, it will grow and we can offer more for an extended period of time,” Spratt said. “And maybe make it permanent.”
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