Spring is such a wonderful time in North Carolina, colorful and fragrant-full of potential. It is almost impossible not to feel excited and optimistic in the spring.

One thing that comes out each spring is the Map the Meal Gap Survey (Feeding America's annual county-by-county snapshot of hunger in America). While this year's survey reveals a slight improvement in the numbers of Triangle families who identify as food-insecure, it is important to note that over a third of those families earn too much money to qualify for SNAP assistance. That is why our efforts are so important!

Our Agricultural staff is not only  growing a summer's worth of new crops ( our Tryon Road Farm Stand does open this week!), they're growing a new generation of gardeners. For instance, we are partnering with Triangle elementary schools on Junior Master Gardener lessons to get kids outside and actively learning where their food comes from. We are very excited about this project and partnership.

So this spring, as you watch the gardens growing, know that the people we serve are learning and growing, too.  With job training, nutrition education, and urban ag instruction to name just a few, our programs bring skills for self-sufficiency to the people we serve.  How's that for optimism?