As we eagerly await the arrival of spring and the many changes that come with it, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle has a change of its own to announce: the promotion of Marshall Dietrich as our new Community Garden Manager in our Agriculture Department!

It is with great appreciation for her many years of service, that we announce the upcoming retirement Urban Agriculture Manager, Kay Coleman, on January 31, 2021.

Families recently gathered safely to prepare healthy recipes in the open air at Camden Street Learning Garden. Community Health Education offers Cooking Matters classes to teach members of our community strategies for preparing nutritious meals on a budget. The class was delivered in Spanish to welcome families from the Latinx community into the space.

What do plastic vegetables, 10,000 mosquito bites and glue sticks all have in common? During the week, all three are a big part of my day before 7 a.m. Having spent the last five years working as an outdoor educator, this is pretty normal stuff, but this time around, I’m adding a camera and a tripod into the mix—all with the goal of producing the Sprout Scouts Virtual Adventures digital learning series.

Tom Jones used to drive past the Food Shuttle Farm every day on his way to work at Penske Logistics. One day, he finally decided to look them up on the web, and wound up volunteering, doing a little bit of everything from weeding to mowing the grass.

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is taking community gardening on the road with a newly launched initiative called Gardens For Everyone. This new program will build raised-bed garden boxes in backyards and community spaces for anyone interested in growing their own food.

The idea of gardening had occupied a tiny corner of my mind for quite some time, but the idea of growing my own “clean” organic vegetables did not come full circle until late fall and early winter of 2016. I was confronted with what could have become a serious physical challenge that turned my attention to eating organically.

In the interest of helping to care for our resident bees at the Food Shuttle’s Urban Learning Gardens, this past winter I and fellow Food Shuttle garden coordinator, Fern Hickey, took part in a beekeeping class with the Durham County Beekeeper’s Association.

Children are a welcome part of the Camden Street Learning Garden. While summer brought heat and afternoon thunderstorms, the neighborhood around Camden Street Learning Garden noticed a new need: an opportunity for children in the neighborhood to gain ownership and pride of the garden

Mission Moments are stories we share from the field to inform, inspire and motivate. These moments remind us all just how lucky we are to be able to do this important work.

“Brussel Sprouts!” That was Rainey West’s emphatic answer to her favorite food.  It’s also proof that our urban agriculture education team is starting a cooking and gardening revolution right here in Raleigh and Durham.

A Tucson, Arizona, urban farm brings residents better nutrition and builds community. It’s a win-win. An example of a different agricultural approach is Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, which serves seven North Carolina counties, recovering and gleaning about 6 million pounds of food a year that would otherwise have gone to waste.