Setting the table straight: a profile of food assistance users in Orange County, North Carolina
Creators: name: Winterberg-Lipp, Ryan J.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2009

description: Founded around the New Hope Chapel, a small Anglican “chapel of ease,” the town of Chapel Hill has come to embody its nickname, the “Southern Part of Heaven” in many ways. Home to the University of North Carolina and renowned for its highly educated, progressive residents, Chapel Hill is “a community where a diversity of ideas, people, and opportunities converge.” Nestled within the town’s stone walls and historic oaks, however, sits a small historic building that serves a population who may not necessarily experience the “ease” and “opportunities” that life in Chapel Hill affords. Located in the Town’s Old Municipal Building, the Inter- Faith Council for Social Service (IFC) is one of Orange County’s main non-public providers of food and financial assistance. Housing the Community Kitchen and the Men’s Residential Facility, the downtown center serves both the IFC’s homeless residents and people who live and work in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. With a Food Pantry and other supportive services located in the nearby Carrboro facility, the IFC plays an important role in the lives of many underserved individuals. Since community discussions began in 2003, the IFC has been planning a reorganization of its services to better meet the needs of disadvantaged Orange County residents and employees. With the consolidation of the Community Kitchen and Food Pantry into a comprehensive FoodFirst model, the IFC plans to utilize its resources more efficiently and expand its options to better serve individuals and families. As a component of the IFC Best Practices Committee’s research and investigation into promising service models and programs, interviews were conducted in the summer of 2008 to gather input and gauge community support for the proposed Comprehensive Service Center. Unexpectedly, this co-located facility was not met with skepticism regarding the potential for a mix of services, but with disbelief that the need for such a center existed in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Some local leaders in both towns questioned the need for kitchen and pantry services; the very existence of hunger in Orange County was refuted. Attitudes equating social services to an enabling crutch emerged, reflecting negative perceptions regarding the clients themselves. These interviews also revealed prevalent unfavorable attitudes among the local business community towards a potential service center and its perception as a blight upon the community. While all interviewees did not express such negative and misinformed views, these misconceptions threaten to undermine the IFC’s ability to both create a successful FoodFirst program and meet the growing needs of local service users. From these community interviews, several immediate needs emerged for the Inter-Faith Council’s future food service consolidation. Initially, issue clarification and differentiation are necessary in order to inform local stakeholders and decision-makers that the IFC fills a necessary gap in the health of many Orange County households. Without common agreement on the concepts of hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty, the IFC’s future plans will remain obscured in misinformation. While sufficient research has not been conducted into the prevalence of such perceptional gaps and the true nature of poverty and food insecurity, anecdotal accounts indicate the need for further local investigation. Secondly, a clear and tangible portrait of the social service client—specifically the IFC client—must be established to both inform the community and provide the most appropriate future services. With these immediate needs, the following exploration and data analysis will concentrate on closing the information gaps that exist regarding poverty, hunger, and food insecurity while dispelling prevalent misconceptions at the local level. While a severe lack of knowledge regarding social service client demographics and economic situations exists across the field, this investigation will lend insight into the nature of the hardships that Orange County residents face in order to gain a greater and more complete understanding of need and the most promising options to address disparities.