Heart of Holly Springs Awarded to Cupboard Executive Director Pat Haggard | |
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Holly Springs Food Cupboard Executive Director Pat Haggard received the coveted Heart of Holly Springs Award from the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce during its annual gathering last month.
As a 100% volunteer-run organization, Pat continues to lead the valiant charge on food insecurity in our sweet community and is an everyday hero to those who volunteer by her side and to Cupboard clients.
From the Cupboard's founding in 2010, Pat has served as a steadfast leader. She originally served as co-executive director (with Carol Moran) until February 2016, when she became the sole executive director. Pat has shepherded the Food Cupboard as it has adapted to the growth in Holly Springs and the entire southwest Wake County areas, overseeing several building expansions, remodelings, and numerous changes in operations.
Food distributions to clients first began in September 2010, in space that was borrowed from the Holly Springs United Methodist Church. In 2011, the permanent home for the Cupboard on Holly Springs Road (where it is presently) was purchased and remodeled, and distributions from that location began in December 2011. Pat has led the Cupboard through three other remodeling projects as the warehouse space was expanded twice and the porch was enclosed to better meet the needs of clients.
Day-to-day operations at the Cupboard have changed over the years as well. Clients initially came inside the Cupboard to make their selections, but the pandemic of 2020 forced a change to a drive-through distribution. Limited home deliveries were added to meet the needs of clients unable to get to the Cupboard due to health or transportation issues. After surveying clients on their preference of distribution methods, a second weekly distribution day was added in August 2022, allowing some clients to make shopping appointments on Mondays while the majority continue to use the drive-through distribution on Thursdays.
In the Holly Springs Food Cupboard's 14 years of distributions, the number of client households served has grown from 240 visits in 2010 to 5,250 household visits in 2023, over a twenty-fold increase!
Throughout the years, “Miss Pat” has become a familiar face to clients, who know she is caring, empathetic, and willing to go the extra mile for them. Volunteers love her for her calm and thoughtful management style and unwavering dedication to the Cupboard. Finally, the Holly Springs community has demonstrated over and over their support for the work that Pat and her volunteers do through their generous donations of time, food, and financial contributions. With Pat at the helm, the Food Cupboard has helped ease the burdens of local families experiencing food insecurity, enabling them to learn, work, play, and contribute to Holly Springs and surrounding communities.
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First Friday Fundraiser at Bombshell Beer
Many thanks to Bombshell Beer Company, Grow Local Realty, and Revolution Mortgage for hosting a First Friday Fundraiser benefitting the Cupboard last month. Special thanks to Dan Lucas who won the 50/50 raffle and then turned around and donated his winnings to the Cupboard! We are so grateful for the continued community support we receive.
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Grateful for our Partners
We are so grateful to the many community partners that help the Food Cupboard throughout the year. From businesses that serve as drop-off sites for food donations to those that donate unused food to the Cupboard for distribution to clients, we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts! These photos show Cupboard Executive Director Pat Haggard sharing certificates of appreciation with many of our community partners.
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Around the Cupboard Last Month | |
This is Casey Jacobs from Middle Creek High School, who delivered food donations for service hours. Thank you! | |  |
We are so thankful to Belinda Whitaker-Gary (pictured far left) who championed a VERY generous donation from Raritan / Legrand! Thank you so much! | | |
Many thanks to South Wake Conservationists for delivering a load of frozen ground beef for Cupboard clients, the first of five delivery drops that will total a whopping 500 pounds of ground beef! We are so thankful for the donation as meat is a staple the Cupboard must purchase and provide each and every week. | | |
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At the beginning of each year, the Cupboard likes to thank our community partners for their help the previous year. Keller Williams Legacy, Apex NC has been a wonderful ally to us by not only providing an additional drop-off area for the community to leave donations outside of the Cupboard's normal hours, but also donating frozen chicken a few times last year for our distributions. Thank you KW Legacy! | |
Thank you to the Classical Conversations Homeschool group of Cary middle schoolers and high schoolers for hosting a food drive recently! They dropped off non-perishable and household item donations that were immediately handed back out into the community. We are so grateful! | | |
Our "lunch bunch" siblings (Ethan and Peyton) stopped back by last week with non-perishables that they purchased with their leftover food allowance. These kiddos are truly amazing! | | |
Talk about a Super Bowl win! The Sunrise United Methodist Church youth held a "Souper Bowl Sunday" event and collected nonperishable foods to donate! | |
This cutie stopped by to drop off food in memory of her great-grandmother, whose birthday fell on Valentine's Day. Thank you so much, Coco, for honoring her memory with such an amazing gift! | | |
Our hearts are full knowing that the kindergarteners at Pine Springs Elementary decided to host a 100-can challenge for their 100th day of school! Their collection added much needed food for Cupboard shelves. | | |
Did you know that your child can earn community service hours by simply holding a successful food drive campaign either in their neighborhood or through their friends and family? Check out #8 in on our "HOLD A FOOD DRIVE" page for all the details! It's easy to do and an absolute win-win for our community! | |
We are so appreciative of Autumn Cohen and her creative kids who put together these sweet Valentine's Day bags for our delivery clients. We're certain that clients enjoyed the extra treat! | |
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Interest in Being a Food Cupboard Farmer?
We're looking for gardeners/acreage owners who'd like to grow selected vegetables in their home gardens for the Food Cupboard. The Cupboard will provide you with free seeds or transplants... and all the free advice you'd like! Vegetables, once harvested, would be shared with Cupboard clients.
If you have enough garden space for just one bed, one row, or a BIG garden - that's up to you! We are grateful for gardens of all sizes. This is an opportunity to get your entire family, neighborhood, or local club involved in helping the community.
Think you may be up to being a local grower this year? Let us know today! Seeds will be going in soon! Contact Jerry DeWitt at garden@hsfoodcupboard.org for more information!
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The Holly Springs Food Cupboard enjoyed some international visitors during February. Cupboard volunteers enjoyed sharing a tour of the facility, and the international students also received some hands-on experience volunteering in the garden! | | |
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Did you know that the Cupboard's winter vegetable garden continues to provide fresh vegetables and greens despite the colder temperatures? Volunteers have kept the garden watered and harvest it about every two weeks! So far, we've harvested kale, cabbage, broccoli, mustard, spinach, collards, and turnips... totaling 85 lbs of fresh greens and vegetables in this new year for our clients. | |
One of our regular garden workers, Iraz, a high school volunteer, planted chard seeds for a spring harvest. | | |
This group of students from Apex High School (The Humanitarian Club) kicked off our first volunteer garden work day last Saturday! They weeded, planted seeds, and hauled loads of soil to garden beds to make a fresh start for the seeds in 2024. | | |
Getting Help & Helping Out | |
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Do you need food assistance? Know someone who does?
Please visit us. The Holly Springs Food Cupboard is here to help. Drive through food distribution is every Thursday, 2-5 p.m. Shopping food distribution by appointment only is every Monday, 1-4 p.m. Deliveries are available to persons with compromised health or without transportation. Click here for more information or to sign up for an appointment to shop in person.
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Donating food? How to Get Food to the Cupboard | |
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The Cupboard can receive donated food on:
- Preferred hours: Mondays 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
- Also: Thursdays noon-5 p.m.
Bring donations to the delivery dock on the side of our facility and ring the doorbell for assistance. Or, give us a call and we can meet you to pick up food from your neighborhood.
If you have food that you want to deliver at other times, you can take it to one of our community drop-off sites listed below. If necessary, we can arrange a time for a pick-up. Please do not leave food outside the Cupboard.
Community Drop-Off Sites
- Bless Your Heart Boutique, 242 S. Main Street, Ste. 106
- Coastal Credit Union, Village Walk Drive
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Coldwell Banker HPW, 5261 Sunset Lake Road
- First Flight Federal Credit Union, Village Walk Drive
- Holly Springs Farmers Market, West Ballentine Street
- Holly Springs Town Hall, Main Street
- Keller Williams Legacy, 1483 Beaver Creek Commons Dr., Apes
- Local Time Brewing, 300 S. Main St., Ste. 204
- Pet Mania, Sunset Lake Road
- Prana Yoga, 300 S. Main St., Suite 116 in Block on Main
- Sunrise United Methodist Church, 5420 Sunset Lake Road
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SupaBowlz Cafe, 150 W Holly Springs Road
- The Block on Main, Corner of Main Street and Rogers Street
- Triangle Wine Company, 4204 Lassiter Road
- Wake FC, Ting Park
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More Information
Thank you, again, to our dedicated volunteers and generous community for making everything we do possible.
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