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For Ginger Allison, each day is an opportunity to make a difference.
“If I have 24 hours in a day,” she says, “Why not make time for serving others?”
This mentality gave Ginger the motivation to create Baggingit4Kids: We Are Durham, a nonprofit that aims to alleviate food waste in Durham as well as prevent local children from going hungry.
Humble Beginnings
Baggingit4Kids began in March 2015 with a simple list consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, bread and water, some of the most basic items Ginger wanted to provide. She was growing more and more frustrated over the number of kids in Durham who rely on free or reduced lunch during the school year and how those kids are not likely to have a reliable source of food during the summer.
Ginger picked the list up again in May, realizing she had to take action. She started making phone calls to local businesses, asking them to provide food for kids in need. At this time Baggingit4Kids was still an idea, not a full-fledged organization, so it was a pleasant surprise when she received support from so many businesses, including The Fresh Market and Ninth Street Bakery.
Since then, Baggingit4Kids has grown from eight sponsors to more than 20. Although the group is based in Durham, its volunteer base spans across North Carolina and includes people from all walks of life, from artists to professors to retirees to students. Despite their differences, all volunteers unite over a common goal – feed as many kids as possible.
The organization’s large network also makes it easy to find areas to target. “It was [all] very organic,” volunteer Lucy Worth says. “We have gone through the doors that opened.”
It Takes a Village
Ginger’s daily process is simple. She begins each morning calling collaborators like Durham Public Schools and Urban Ministries of Durham to determine food needs. Then, she calls sponsors like Monuts Donuts, Toast and The Original Q Shack, to determine food availability.
From there, volunteers visit sponsors to pick up food that would otherwise be wasted, but is still perfectly edible (“ugly” or slightly bruised foods often fall in this category). Depending on availability, Baggingit4Kids receives items including meat, cheese and vegetables in addition to salads, bread and yogurt. Volunteers then sort the donated food and deliver it to the aforementioned collaborators.
This process can take around four hours, not to mention the time spent driving around neighborhoods, bringing food to kids who might not have the means to make it to Urban Ministries or to a DPS PTA or Durham Parks and Recreation-sponsored summer camp.
Like any nonprofit, Baggingit4Kids does face some unique challenges. Since the food they receive is based on availability, it changes daily. Sometimes volunteers will be left with too much of a single food item, so they have to be creative. In the past, volunteers have made big batches of soup from donated items; other times they simply give the extra to Urban Ministries, which has a community café.
Having too much food is certainly preferable over having too little. And when stacked against larger, national nonprofits, Baggingit4Kids holds its own. The organization prides itself in being as transparent as possible. There is no bureaucracy, no overhead, no closed doors. All the money and donations go directly back into the community and all volunteers have an equal say in the organization. “We just trust each other,” Ginger says about the tight-knit group of volunteers. “If there are 100 paths [to our goal], we’ll try them all.”
Dream Big
Ginger is optimistic about the future. As Baggingit4Kids’ network continues to grow, so does the number of kids they provide for. Soon, Ginger hopes to raise enough money via the organization’s GoFundMe to purchase a food truck, which would allow more food to be distributed within local communities. Sometime in the future, they would also like to have a storefront for a community kitchen. “Dream big, but know that the realities are there,” Ginger says.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]Did you know… [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
- 65.19% of children in grades K-12 in Durham County schools receive free or reduced lunch.
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- Meaning 20,691 kids are at risk of going hungry during the summer.
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- Baggingit4Kids has fed almost 10,000 kids to date.
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- More than 20 local businesses help support Baggingit4Kids.
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