South Charlotte Today

University of North Carolina Charlotte issued the following announcement on Mar. 1.

In 2019, Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays fed more than 80,000 Charlotte residents, enough to fill Bank of America Stadium. In 2020, that number jumped to 120,000-plus. 

“We saw a dramatic, overnight increase in food insecurity during the pandemic,” explained Tina Postel, CEO of Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays.  

In May 2021, the two organizations merged after having operated independently for more than 45 years. Historically, Loaves & Fishes has offered food for pickup at local pantries, and Friendship Trays, Charlotte’s designated Meals on Wheels program, has delivered meals to people’s homes. They had to temporarily shut down their brick-and-mortar pantries. 

“As a result, the pandemic showed us the dire need for home delivery,” Postel said, “and that the two organizations can work better as one to create a continuum approach to the complicated challenges we face.”  

It forced both organizations to radically rethink operational strategies, outreach, and delivery models. 

Director of Community Outreach and UNC Charlotte alumna Danielle Moore ’18 M.P.H., said, “Access is one of the key challenges to food security.” She interned for the nonprofit while in school. “The pandemic exacerbated this in a variety of ways and pushed us toward the mobile approach.”

Currently, half of the nonprofit’s pantries are mobile. To ensure safety, they set up in parking lots. The trucks deliver food to the site, and when clients enter the lot, staff check them in on iPads and then load the food into their vehicles.

They also have pantries on wheels called Food Pharmacies through an alliance with One Charlotte Health Alliance (OCHA), which includes Atrium and Novant Health and the Mecklenburg County Public Health Department.

Doctors and other health professionals write food prescriptions or referrals to the units that have food low in salt, sugar and fat.

“Food security is nutritional security,” Moore explained. “We want to make sure we’re offering healthy foods, especially because many of our clients suffer from chronic health conditions. This is a critical component and part of our mission.”

In addition to leading the charge on many of these innovations, Moore created and implemented the Grocery Home Delivery Program, which delivers healthy groceries directly to people’s doors.

It began in April 2020 as a way to safely serve clients with COVID. By the end of the year, a fleet of volunteer vehicles was loading up three days a week with both fresh and nonperishable groceries and delivering to clients all over Charlotte. The program was expanded to include anyone who wasn’t able to access their services and in nine months fed almost 8,000 Charlotteans.

In 2021, the program fed more than 15,000 Charlotte residents. She is now working on piloting the online grocery shopping component of the program where clients can choose the foods delivered to their homes.

“We accomplished this by starting small and continuing to adapt,” Moore said. “Program implementation in general is about trying things, assessing impact and then adapting.”

Before being hired in 2018, Moore interned at Loaves & Fishes while completing a master’s degree in public health at UNC Charlotte.  

Her study of chronic health conditions as an undergrad, especially those that impact Black communities and people of color, inspired her passion for public service. 

“I entered public health because it combines science, health and public service. It’s about ensuring all citizens can lead healthy and productive lives, and this depends on the work of public health professionals,” she explained. “The Grocery Home Delivery Program is a combination of things I’ve learned throughout my career in public health, the master’s program and my internship.” 

Moore heads the internship program at the organization, which is now very robust. When she started, there had only been about eight interns prior to her. Now there have been a total of 32, 12 of whom were UNC Charlotte interns from multiple disciplines.

“Danielle is a living, breathing example of an internship at its finest, and through it has made a radical impact in our community as well,” Postel said.

“My approach to our internship program,” Moore explained, “is to encourage the interns to find something they really enjoy and want to dig deeper into. When they do this, they naturally develop projects on ways to make operational improvements.

Original source can be found here.