Community in Crisis: The Durham Neighbors Free Lunch Initiative

What happens when concerned citizens join forces to provide for their community during a pandemic? Durham is seeing it happen right now, via the Durham Neighbors Free Lunch Initiative.

Three weeks ago, Elijah King, Riverside High School senior and student activist, Grant Ruhlman, owner of Homebucha Kombucha, and George O’Neill, owner of Lil Farm, came together to figure out how they could combine efforts to support the people of Durham in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. They left their conference call with the idea of a community-funded initiative that would accomplish three goals: fighting food insecurity by providing healthy meals for free, supporting local farms, and putting a local restaurant back into service.

Wasting no time, King created a GoFundMe page with a brief description of their vision for the initiative that gained traction quickly, hitting an initial goal of $15,000 in a day and a half. The page just kept spreading, now reaching over $40,000 from nearly 500 individual donors. 

“We’re seeing this totally amazing, overwhelming community support from people who want to see something being done and not just talked about,” said Ruhlman. “There’s a sense of urgency that I feel, when I wake up, that we cannot wait to act because people are suffering right now.”

The devastating social and financial impacts of the spread of COVID-19 in America have left many citizens in Durham and beyond with a frightening question: where will I get my next meal? With massive increases in unemployment because of the virus, the ever-present problem of food insecurity in America has only grown in severity. Additionally, in areas like Durham, where over half of public school students receive free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch from their schools on a daily basis, school closures are leaving families stranded. Grassroots organizing efforts throughout the country are actively trying to provide for these vulnerable populations, for whom this pandemic is especially devastating, in the face of governmental shortfalls. Durham Free Lunch is joining in the national fight for justice on a local scale.

“We’re doing this work for the community because we are equal neighbors and equal partners in the Durham community,” said King. “We don’t treat each other like charity cases because we’re receiving services, or we need to rely on something or someone else. This is paying it forward to your community.”

The people of Durham proved ready to support this initiative. Partnering with Andy MacGowan, owner of local restaurant Geer Street Garden, the initiative was able to hit the ground running. Shortly after the initial fundraising success, Geer Street Garden reopened its doors after being forced to close because of COVID-19. Four people staff its kitchen, each being paid a living wage for 20 hours per week from funds raised via GoFundMe. 

With local food from Lil Farm and other local suppliers on deck, the team behind Durham Free Lunch launched their first meal service on April 9, planning to serve five days a week. As of now, meals are picked up from Geer Street Garden, and they are offered to anyone and everyone. Accessibility is a crucial part of the initiative: if you need a meal, take a meal. They are currently preparing 100 meals per day, but intend to increase that number over the next few weeks.

Cautionary actions against the spread of COVID-19 are carefully practiced: a sidewalk with lines spray-painted every six feet leads up to a bar counter, where packaged meals (There are three menu options available) are placed by employees wearing masks and gloves. The safety of employees, volunteers, and meal recipients is a top priority of the entire operation. 

In the future, the team behind Durham Free Lunch is hopeful that they will be able to implement a delivery service, where they take meals beyond Geer Street Garden. From Urban Ministries to MacDougall Terrace, there is no shortage of places in Durham that will benefit from access to these meals. 

“[This initiative] is just neighbors helping neighbors,” said King. “The community aspect is something I love so much about Durham. We treat each other like neighbors, no matter what.”

The team behind Durham Free Lunch is well aware of the reality that the community’s struggle with food insecurity will not disappear as social distancing measures are lifted. Their work is responding to a long-standing problem that COVID-19 merely brought out of the shadows.

“I feel strongly that this is a time we need solidarity among working people,” said Ruhlman. “We are creating resilience and systems that will serve us not just in this time of crisis. All the energy we’re putting into solutions now will be helpful in a post-COVID world. The only reason that this Durham Free Lunch Initiative is able to do anything is the massive community support we’ve seen through encouragement and donations. With the help of the community, there are a lot of places this could go.”

Regardless of what the Durham Neighbors Free Lunch Initiative looks like in the future, it’s currently helping Durhamites face their day-to-day lives in this new normal with a little less fear, knowing that they have a seat at the table.

In the words of George O’Neill: “Solidarity, not charity.”

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Astead Herndon

Astead W. Herndon is a national politics reporter and part-time CNN political analyst. He is currently based in New York. He has done political reporting based in Washington and was a City Hall reporter for the Boston Globe before coming to the New York Times. During this election cycle, he is covering Democratic presidential candidates, focusing primarily on Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

I want to follow Herndon because I am very interested in the 2020 presidential election, specifically in Warren and Sanders and the implications that their campaigns have for the future of politics in America. Herndon covers Warren and Sanders’ general campaigns, but also focuses on racial and gendered politics that play a huge role during presidential campaigns. His work very clearly presents the facts about issues that are typically addressed in a subjective manner, so I find his work as a journalist to be incredibly important during a time of intense division and hyperpartisanship. I look forward to reading his articles as he covers the upcoming primary season.

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