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Many feeding programs continue
with new twists to allow social
distancing. Others have stopped
or slowed because of budget cuts
or the temporary loss of dozens of
volunteers who are elderly or health
compromised, the most vulnerable
coronavirus demographic.
“We chose to continue feeding the
poor and keeping our food pantry
open,” says Rick Stoker, founder of
First Fruit Ministries. “We could not
let people in the building, so we set
up a tent outside. The office workers
had to shift into jeans and ball caps
and fix boxes of groceries.”
The food pantry is open
Wednesday and Saturday. First Fruit
also continues to serve meals outside at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Wednesday and Sunday
afternoons. And their facility on Vance Street remains open for hot lunch and dinner to the
unsheltered on Thursdays. The ministry also takes meals and encouragement out to homeless
camps two days a week.
“We got so low on supplies that we had to cut out our Tuesday feeding,” Stoker says. “We are going
to be okay, and we are not going to stop. But the chore level and expense has changed a lot.”
The Salvation Army is maintaining their nightly to-go meals, serving between 30-50 visitors at 6
p.m. The organization feeds its 25 residents three meals a day.
The Good Shepherd soup kitchen had been one of the larger efforts in town, often feeding
150-250 people in a one-hour lunch period. But with many of the 550 volunteers staying home,
the staff could not keep up the pace.
“We ended up discontinuing that program,” Knight says. “What we did do is ramp up our food
giveaway. Folks can walk up or drive up and we already have food bagged.”
Good Shepherd also prepares and delivers food boxes to some fragile folks they have rehoused
in the community, making sure they are getting some staples in their home every week.
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Craddock explains. “So we have
arrangements between a coali-tion
of local organizations includ-ing
United Way, New Hanover
County, the Good Shepherd
Center, Red Cross, and we have a
series of motel rooms that we can
rent. We quarantine our homeless
in those spaces, so we can keep
people safe and provide those
wrap-around services they need
— food, health, things that we all
need and various organizations
can provide.”
Incidents of domestic violence
have risen with lockdown orders
in place. The Domestic Violence
Services and Shelter (DVSS) has
seen a huge increase in place-ment
needs.
“Our shelter was destroyed by
Hurricane Florence, so we are
at an alternate shelter location,”
explains Tania Varela, court
advocate for DVSS. “The amount
we shelter right now has tripled
because of COVID. It is supposed
to be around 10-15. Right now
(November) we have 35, we have
had 40. That housing number
fluctuates a lot.”
The shelter is an undisclosed
location because abusers often
try to find where clients are
staying.
Varela says there are a lot of
extra pressures on people right
now, causing more abuse.
“Victims don’t have a reprieve
from that violence if the abuser
is home fulltime,” she explains.
“The abused are taking life sec-ond-
by-second. They don’t have
those moments to recover.”
At the beginning of the stay-at-
home order there was a lack of
information.
“Victims thought they could
not file a protective order
because the courts are closed.
But that was never the case,”
Varela says.
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Above and below: Volunteers prepare plates and serve
guests during the First Fruit Ministry’s annual holiday
homeless dinner in November.
Feeding the Hungry