New N.C. food pantry fills a growing need

GRANDY, N.C. 

Jennifer Barnak and Valerie Cushing entered the Lower Currituck Food Pantry in Grandy about noon Wednesday hoping to get enough groceries to tide them over for a few days.

Both are unemployed now, waiting for work on the Outer Banks to begin next month, and both have a family. They rode together to save gas.

They are part of a record number of people in Currituck County seeking help to feed their families.

"When you're hungry, you'd be surprised how far you can make this box of food go," Barnak said, standing next to the sign-in counter. "This is great."

Partnered with the Food Bank of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, the food pantry opened the last week of January, thanks to a $14,700 grant from the county. In February, food was given to 414 people in 165 families, a turnout that shocked volunteers.

"It was a super 'wow,' " said Polly Gregory, the volunteer pantry director.

The turnout was similar to the record number at county Social Services, where there were 895 cases involving 2,142 people receiving help with food in February – the most ever in a month, director Kathlyn Romm said.

Of those people, 675 were younger than 12 and 84 were older than 65.

"There has absolutely been a dramatic rise in the need for food," she said. "We hit new records every month."

Set up in what used to be a garage, the pantry is open from 5:30 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays.

On Tuesday, during a cold rainstorm, 17 people came for food.

"Most people are out of work, and they are just trying to hang in there until spring," Gregory said. "Then once they get the seasonal job, they're going to be playing catch-up."

Currituck County is regarded as prosperous, with ample tax revenues from Outer Banks properties and many residents commuting to jobs in Hampton Roads.

But when the construction trade dropped sharply, so did the local economy. Currituck County had 1,148 people unemployed in December, or 8.9 percent of the work force.

One hundred workers from construction trades filed for unemployment in the county, more than 11 percent of Currituck's total unemployment.

Many more people, like Barnak and Cushing, work on the Outer Banks in the spring and summer.

"When the season is over, the rent is still due," said Barnak, who lives in a household of five people.

Cushing, a single mother who also cares for her 79-year-old mother, has a four-year degree in animal science but has been unable to find work except for waiting tables.

"This is such a big help," she said of the food pantry.

Albemarle Food Bank provides much of the food but it is not enough, Gregory said.

Bags and boxes come in almost daily from collection sites countywide. If there is a sale at Food Lion, volunteers buy as much as they can.

Regardless of size, families get one box of food per month, unless Gregory sneaks in a little more.

"If we have a family of eight or 10, I'll add extra," Gregory said. "If somebody comes in hungry, I'm not turning them away."

Many groups and churches helped organize the pantry, led by the Rev. David Blackman of Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Grandy and Hebron United Methodist Church in Jarvisburg.

"It's been amazing how many people are responding without ever being asked," he said.

Everyone who works there, including Gregory, is a volunteer.

It hasn't all gone smoothly. Local resident Butch Petrey spent days cleaning the old, greasy garage.

After a painter finished applying a coat of yellow to cinder-block walls, Petrey entered shortly after to find paint running onto the floor. It was too cold for paint. He and others cleaned up the mess, brought in heaters and put on another coat to stay.

At first, people waited in long lines in cold, wet weather just to be sure to get groceries before they ran out. Pantry volunteers rushed to fill boxes, and food supplies ran out quickly.

Then they came up with a new plan. People whose last names begin with A through C come the first week, D through J the second week, and so on through the month.

The method keeps the crowds down and the food more evenly distributed, Gregory said.

Volunteers have to learn the paperwork involved, keep statistics on who is served, and get trained in food handling. Some even learn grant writing.

"There's much more to it than handing out food," Blackman said. "But it's worth it. People are getting fed."

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com