Recipient Organization
SOUTHERN RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES
20 ACADEMY ST
BURNSVILLE,NC 28714
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Reconciliation House serves Yancey County, a Tier I county, located in the rural mountainous regions of Western North Carolina. The richness of the area's natural resources and deep farming culture intersect with the impediments of geopgraphic isolation, limited econcomic development, intergenerational poverty, and a high rate of food insecurity. The importance of farming to the people of Yancey County prevails een after the collapse of tobacco, but the downturn in manufacturing and industry jobs and rise of big agriculture leave many Yancey County households without living income garnered from factories or farms.Reconciliation House has truned to local assets to help meet the need for emergency food as more people experience poverty and related food insecurity. We partnered with the newly formed commjnity garden, Dig In! to consisitently provide fresh, local produce to clients receiving food. The very positive response to fresh produce from Reconciliation House clients encouraged the formation of additional community partnerships whose role in the food local food system could benefit those in our community seeking emergency food. These local partnerships include the Yancey Farmers's Market, TRACTOR, Yancey Gleaners, Seeds of Hope community garden and more than 7 local farms who donate directly to Reconcliation House. From April 2014-2015, Reconciliation House received and distributed 5000 pounds of fresh produce donated by local farms and gardeners. And an additional 3700 pounds of fresh produce from Dig In! Community Garden. The increased interest in and capacity to distribute local produce from the pantry directly points to the resources available in Yancey County to feed its own population, but also demonstrates the capacity of organizations to work together to utilize the resources for the betterment of many.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The principle goal of the "Reconcliation Food Hub" proposal is to enhance food security for low-income residents of Yancey County, NC. We propose to do tis by improving te infrastructure that allows us and partners to distribute dry, canned and fresh food to individuals and families that receive food from our food pantry and associated programs.One goal is to involve community stakeholders in the planning, design, construction and implementation of the Reconciliation Food Hub to best meet the needs of low-income residents who reeive emergency food from Reconciliation House. A second goal is to renovate the current 450 square foot food pantry to increase in size, appropriate equipment for fresh produce storage, and building elements for giving low-income residents choice of food when seeking foood assistances. A third goal is to operate a unique community food hub that connects the local and emergency food systems to provide fresh, culturally appropriate food to low-income residents in Yancey County through participation of low-income individuals and community partnerships.
Project Methods
The proposed project to expand the Reconciliation House food pantry to create a food hub for low-income residents of Yancey County will "meet the food needs of low-income individuals through food distribution and participation in federally assisted nutrition programs by increasing access to dry and canned food pruchased form Mann food bank, fresh produce provided by local growers, and TEFAP items. Reconciliation House often does not spend the enitre amount budgeted for food purchased from Manna because we do not have sufficient storage, shelf or cooler space. Unfortunately, this deficit leads to shortages of food items until we are able to restock. Local farmers have produce that they provide to Reconclilaiton House to distribute but this produce is very perishable and challenging to keep fresh until we are able to distribute it to local families without adequate cold storage.Reconciliation House is working with the Toe River Food Security Network to develp an evaluation tool that identifies metrics using Results Based Accountability that measures outcomes described in the Whole Measures of Community Food Security. In the logic model provided for this project, we have identified 9 indicators for the Whole Measures fields of practice that align with the outcomes this project will have on community food security in Yancey County. The 9 indicatiors will be evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative easures that include, but will not be limited to: the quantity and quality of healthy food selected by users of the pantry (before renovations) and then Food Hub (after renovations); the number of pounds donated through the number of low-income individuals that participate in leadership roles to both construct and operate the food hub, and their qualitative reflections on the significance of their participation.