Stories & Portraits of Food Resiliency
Photographs and stories commissioned by Feeding America, the national network of food banks
Just about everyone at the Greeleyville Primary School food distribution knows Evelina Jones.
A special education teacher, Evelina greets friends and strangers alike with a wave and a warm smile.
“I love everyone,” she said. Her philosophy is “love one another. Treat everyone the way you’d want to be treated.”
Evelina had a free moment from teaching that morning, so she stepped outside to help distribute food provided by the Lowcountry Food Bank, a partner of Feeding America.
The closest grocery store is about a dozen miles away, Evelina said. A lot of the community’s paychecks go toward paying for their commute to buy food. Distributions like this helped everyone save.
She loves Greeleyville because everyone takes care of each other. “We’re just like a family,” she said.
Scott Noble waited out Hurricane Ian on the second-story balcony of a hotel in North Port, Florida.
He held on as the wind pried off the hotel roof. He watched as pieces of buildings floated by in the rising floodwaters.
“It was catastrophic,” he said. Scott, who is homeless, lost his tent, sleeping bag, and other belongings in the storm.
The waters receded, and he began to look for work as an electrician.
He came across the Awaken Church Food Pantry, a partner agency of the All Faiths Food Bank, where he received food and water. They also helped him buy a new tent.
“I’ll help you since you helped me,” he said.
For the last week, he has set up tables, restocked shelves, and trained fellow volunteers from 7 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night.
He made sure that his neighbors have access to healthy, reliable food. He’s especially concerned about older people he’s seen come through the distribution. They might live on a fixed income and their food likely spoiled in the prolonged power outage, he said.
“We’re trying to help everybody,” he said as he handed fresh fruits and vegetables to his neighbors.
Cynthia Mezius tried to keep her children busy as Hurricane Ian pummeled their North Port, Florida home.
Her daughter Za’Riyah conducted science experiments, like building a vinegar and baking soda volcano. They played mad libs and board games, too. “You don’t need electricity for that,” Cynthia explained.
The family lost power for ten days. They grilled what they could, but “we weren't able to use our refrigerators or freezers. We had to throw away a lot,” Cynthia said.
They were excited to receive fresh fruit and vegetables at the Awaken Church Food Pantry, a partner agency of All Faiths Food Bank. Visiting the distribution “helps us be able to start over,” she said.
Following a disaster – like Hurricane Ian, which devastated Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast – people need compassion, Tennissia Gaines said. “And they need to know that you hear them, that you’re not just out there for a quick fix, that you’re actually taking the time to listen.”
“You’re making what’s important to them important to you,” she said.
As a Community Engagement Coordinator at the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion In Emergency Management (I-DIEM), Tennissia engages with underserved communities immediately following hurricanes and other disasters.
The I-DIEM was founded to make sure that underserved communities receive services and resources. Tennissia speaks with people door-to-door in affected neighborhoods and at food distributions to hear what they need.
Most of the time prior to a disaster, “they were already struggling to get by on a day-to-day,” she said. “Their need is heightened after a disaster.”
“What are the resources needed? What are the barriers to receiving the resources?” she asks.
From that information, I-DIEM connects the community with government agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency or nonprofits like Feeding America. Together, “we’re able to link resources,” Tennissia said, “to meet the needs of these underserved communities.”
The institute also offers cultural competency and trauma-informed training for other organizations engaging with communities responding to disasters. “They’re already at a heightened level of frustration,” she said. “In that moment, they need to be heard.”
In the weeks following Hurricane Ian’s destructive path through Ft. Myers, Florida, Tara Muller was reminded of her experience in New York following the September 11th attacks.
She recalled that “the American flags came out. Everybody helped. We were there for each other.”
She was encouraged to see neighbors taking care of one another then, and she felt the same way as she visited the Gladiolus Food Pantry, a partner agency of the Harry Chapin Food Bank.
Tara relies on a wheelchair to get around. She appreciates that the staff helps her navigate the distribution, she said. “They're always looking to help out. I've never been to a food pantry this nice.”
Tara, who receives disability assistance, was able to stay with a relative during the worst of the storm. She was relieved that, when she returned to her apartment, it had sustained minimal damage, other than the loss of the perishable food in her refrigerator when the power cut out.
Tara lives on a fixed income. Thanks to the distribution, she’ll have enough to pay rent because she won’t have to spend as much on groceries.
She wants to make sure other members of her community are cared for, too. The day before, she made a chocolate cake for her neighbor. “Everybody needs to come together,” she said.
Deidra Rufino and her family have lived in North Port, Florida for generations.
After Hurricane Ian caused massive wind and water damage in her community, she was stuck inside her house for a few days until it was safe to emerge.
“I’ve been through other hurricanes. I was not expecting this,” she said. “It was emotional to see all the damage that had happened in the city.”
Hurricane Ian was scary to live through, she said, but the days following the storm were even harder. “It's the aftermath: not being able to work, no power, running out of food.”
Deidra visited the Awaken Church Food Pantry, a partner agency of All Faiths Food Bank, with her son Kaeden, 10, and daughter Mila, 3.
With her due date only three days away, Deidra had started her maternity leave that morning. She was relieved that her power had just come back on at home.
As she prepares for the birth of her youngest daughter, Deidra and her family need to stock up on baby formula, which they cannot find in nearby stores. “We've been having to travel further away from home to get some of the supplies,” she said, including a 90-minute roundtrip drive to an area less affected by the storm.
She was excited to learn that she could pick up baby formula and diapers at the distribution.
“I wasn't working since the hurricane,” Deidra said. The pantry is “helping me out financially so I don't have to spend out of pocket expenses, knowing that I'm going to be on maternity leave.”
“It warmed my heart to see even the little kids out here helping out as much as possible,” she said.
Sgt. Edgar Leon recently returned from a year-long deployment in Djibouti, Africa for the U.S. Army.
Now back home in Richmond, Virginia, he stopped by the Ephesus Food Pantry to pick up the fixings for a holiday meal.
“I’m looking forward to sharing it with my wife and family,” including his 10- and 12-year-old children, he said. “I’m happy I’m back now to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving.”
Being away during the pandemic was difficult, especially when his wife was sick with Covid-19, but he’s grateful for their health today.
We’re going to gather and “thank God for our blessings,” he said.
“Not everyone has time to volunteer,” Scout Swonger said. “What is two hours of my week and life if it makes a huge difference to someone else?”
Scout, who uses they/them pronouns, moved to the Pittsfield area last year for a sales and fundraising job at a local theater in the famed Massachusetts Berkshires.
They were surprised by the community’s economic disparities. “You turn a corner, and it's million-dollar houses. And then the next corner is very much the opposite,” they said.
Scout also noticed that people without a car struggled to access fresh fruits and vegetables, so they started volunteering as a food delivery driver for the South Community Food Pantry, a partner agency of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
“I have a car. I have the time,” they said.
The effort has helped Scout feel at home in Pittsfield. “I feel more connected to the region. I also feel really connected to these 8 to 10 households that I deliver to every single week. These are some of the people I see most frequently in my life.”
This November, Scout was one of 500 volunteers who helped distribute holiday meals to 1,700 households as part of Thanksgiving Angels, a collaboration of 21 food pantries, organizations and faith communities.
After their delivery route, Scout was headed home to New Hampshire to spend Thanksgiving with their family.
Volunteering had changed their perspective, they said, and it had given them more to be thankful for. “Week to week, it's made me more aware and more grateful of even the most basic things we have.”
“We’re here for you,” Chef Israel “Izzy” Santiago tells his students at the Second Harvest Culinary Training Program.
“We take our students – one by one – through the path,” he said. “We have to understand where you come from to understand where we’re at and where we’ll go.”
The 16-week program provides free kitchen and life skills training to help people pursue sustainable careers in the food industry.
Many of the students have faced barriers to finding stable work. Some have experienced hunger and poverty.
“They have seen all these ‘nos’ everywhere. Doors closing,” Chef Izzy said. “Let’s do something different. Let’s say ‘yes.’”
After 25 years as a professional chef in Florida and across the East Coast, Chef Izzy knows what it takes to succeed in the kitchen. He also knows why it’s important for new chefs to have support along the way.
“That makes a difference to know my chef is there for me, to know Second Harvest will not close the doors on me,” he said.
“Our students are amazing,” Chef Izzy said. “We have students that…are celebrity chefs now. We have students that run their own catering company.”
“I feel honored to be here and share with our students,” he said. “My dream is for them to be as successful as possible.”
“It’ll take a lifetime to give back all that was given to me,” Sally Latimer said at the start of another busy day at the Monacan Indian Nation Food Bank in central Virginia, which works with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.
Sally and her staff of four were preparing for a contactless distribution, serving Native American families in their community.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, they served up to 35 families each month. Today, their outreach is ten times that.
When Sally joined the food bank in 2018, she wanted to help her tribe. One in four Native Americans is food insecure, and Monacans, she said, have long been discriminated against in rural Amherst County.
But she also wanted to use the food bank to build community and understanding for everyone. After all, Sally knew what it was like to be hungry.
About a decade earlier, her husband passed away, and she became the sole provider for her young son. The money she made working in childcare wasn’t enough to cover all of their bills.
“There’s a stereotype that people that go to food banks are lazy,” she said. “The majority of the people that we serve are working people.”
As co-director, Sally has found ways to reach her community where they are. She and the staff deliver groceries if someone is sick or doesn’t have a car, and they call clients every week to check in and confirm appointments. They hold dinners for elders and hope to start a hot meals delivery program for low-income neighborhoods.
Sally and her staff want to provide better quality foods to their community. Fruits, vegetables, and meats are the most common request, she said.
Recently, they planted a garden and plan to distribute fruits and vegetables, including some traditional Monacan foods like Tutelo strawberry corn and amaranth.
“Every time I hand a bag of food to someone, it’s me giving back just a tiny bit of what was given to me,” she said. “For me, there is no more perfect job.”
When Anita Garrett thinks of her childhood, she remembers peaches picked fresh in her family’s backyard. The fruit’s sweet juice would “roll on down your face,” she remembered and smiled.
“I raised my grandkids the way my mom raised me,” she said. “We do fruit and vegetables. We like squash and broccoli.”
And like her mother before her, Anita shows her love for others through food.
She cooks traditional family dishes – like collard greens and smothered potatoes – for her four grandchildren who live with her. She volunteers at Milwaukee’s WestCare Wisconsin Food Pantry where she also receives food.
And she makes sure that her neighbors have reliable access to food.
“I’m not the only one who has food insecurities,” Anita said. “I get up and do what I can do to help my next-door neighbor.”
She posts distribution announcements on her social media accounts. She texts mobile pantry times and locations to her network. If someone is new to visiting pantries, Anita calls to walk them through when and where to go for what they need, whether that’s fresh produce, meats, or shelf-stable items.
“As parents and grandparents, our goal is to make sure that there's food on the table,” she said. “My focus is making sure no child – no child, not just mine – goes hungry.”
Last year, 1 in 6 people in the U.S. – 53 million people – received food from charitable organizations, and this spring, 45% of food banks saw an increase in the number of people they served.
Anita recognizes that growing need in her Milwaukee community, which she sees as “in survival mode right now because the groceries are so high.”
Anita is part of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin’s Food Leaders Lab, which connects local residents with advocacy, policy, and communication coaching to solve hunger in their community.
Recently, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
Bobby Brown, a fifth grade math and special education teacher with a master’s degree, recently moved back home to Richmond, Virginia from Washington, D.C. to help his ailing mother.
He had hoped to find work substitute teaching until he could get his Virginia teaching license, but the coronavirus pandemic made that difficult, so he got a job working at Dollar General “to keep me busy, help keep the lights on,” he said.
Brown misses teaching, but he’s grateful to be around for his family, including all the fixings for thanksgiving meal from the Ephesus Food Pantry.
“That’ll be my contribution to the family dinner,” he said. He looked forward to spending the holiday with his mother, aunt and cousins.
When people volunteer at their local food bank, they’re probably hoping to find some satisfaction from helping their neighbors.
For Kim and Dave, they found something unexpected: love.
The two met while volunteering at a Second Harvest Heartland mobile pantry in Egan, Minnesota.
Every Tuesday for a year, Kim Aleshire Johnston and Dave Ring organized produce, distributed gallons of milk, and returned shopping carts. As they got to know each other, they realized how much they had in common.
“He was such a kindred spirit from the get-go,” Kim said. “We both like to have fun and to move around and do things.”
After retiring from his work at a vehicle leasing company during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave missed interacting with co-workers.
Volunteering meant he could “give back to others in need,” he said. “We’re very fortunate in our country to have as much as we do.”
After 35 years of travel as a flight attendant, Kim wanted to connect with her suburban Minneapolis community. “It’s right up my alley – greeting people and having fun,” she said.
Dave noticed right away how welcoming Kim is to all who visit the distribution.
“She’s very kind to the families, and she’s good with the kids,” he said. “She tries to make sure they feel special.”
Kim understands that “everybody needs help sometimes. Everybody has needs. Even if it isn’t food, you just need support.”
“Our clients come and they get what they need to sustain them hopefully for a week. They leave and are so happy, but I think we get more out of it” as volunteers, Kim said.
“You feel like you have helped touch somebody’s life,” she said, and her time as a volunteer created “a real peace in my heart.”
“I get up every day because I know there's going to be a woman that needs me,” Kimberly Harris said during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
In 2020, Kimberly founded Women’s HQ, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that uplifts women of color who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault. Through counseling, wellness programs, and career opportunities, Women’s HQ helps women reclaim their lives.
This mission “will always be embedded in my heart because I am a domestic violence survivor,” she said. “I speak from experience. I was that girl that was sitting in a homeless shelter with no food in her stomach.”
After nearly losing her life to an intimate partner, Kimberly “suffered from PTSD, anxiety, and depression,” she said. “I was unable to work full-time.”
As she reclaimed her life, she knew she wanted to help other women, but first, she needed education, she said. In her 40s, she received a Bachelors degree in Arts in Management with 4.0 grades at The Catholic University of America, and then she enrolled at Georgetown University where she achieved her Executive Masters in Leadership.
Through Womens HQ, Kimberly wanted to create an atmosphere for women to “overcome their circumstances and regain themselves through health and wellness,” she said.
“It’s the holistic approach,” she said. Women receive wrap-around support that helps them build their future, including by establishing a sustainable career path.
“I'm not talking about just flipping burgers. I'm talking about a workable wage. You can actually get benefits from your employer and you can actually hold down your household and save a little money,” Kimberly said. The goal is “to see your future and see your way through the trauma.”
Kimberly attended the White House conference because she wanted to advocate for more resources for nonprofits like Women’s HQ. “We're the boots on the ground,” she said.
Althea Lankford’s official role at the Hallie Q. Brown food pantry is coordinator, but in practice, the job is so much more.
She’s an advocate for the community. She’s a sounding board when someone needs to talk. She’s a friendly face.
More than anything, she says, her job is to let people know that “it’s OK to need help. It’s OK to ask” because “this is designed to help you and your family.”
Althea grew up in the central St. Paul, Minnesota neighborhood that the pantry serves.
Her mom never let on, but Althea knows that it was difficult to provide for Althea and her five siblings after the death of their father.
“Looking back, I realize where mom was probably struggling,” she said, but she was “not going to tell you. She’s just going to take care of you the best she can.”
She recognizes that struggle in the faces of her neighbors as “the kids light up” and their “mom gets a little smile on her face” when they receive food they couldn’t otherwise afford.
“It is rewarding to see people happy,” Althea said.
People receive food once a month, but if they want fresh produce, they can come in more frequently.
Through local business partnerships and support from Second Harvest Heartland, the pantry offers a variety of fresh vegetables, including potatoes, onions, green peppers, and salad greens.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hallie Q. Brown was set up like a store. People selected their own grocery items from stocked shelves and refrigerators.
Once close contact was no longer safe, volunteers and staff distributed pre-packed boxes, but they worried that people weren’t getting what they needed or wanted.
Before long, the pantry created an online form, similar to the grocery service Instacart, that allowed people to choose their groceries again. People without internet access could also call in or fill out a form in person.
“You keep it client choice even though you can’t come in and shop for yourself,” Althea said.
“Food is like a memory. Food is good feelings,” Ana Perez said while attending the Second Harvest Culinary Training Program in Orlando.
Ana Perez grew up helping her mother bake cakes in Venezuela. “She started selling them because we needed the money,” Ana said. “I was always next to her. I was always watching.”
Their first cake – a recipe from her grandmother – was magical to Ana. It was “a beautiful, delicious cake,” she said.
Ana and her family moved to Florida a decade ago when she was 11. After graduating from high school in 2020, Ana found that, without a permanent U.S. residency status, her career options were limited.
When her aunt told her about the food bank’s culinary program, Ana was excited to follow in her mother’s steps.
Ana’s first week was challenging, she said. “You have to be focused. You have to be prepared. You have to open your mind and be passionate and ready for work.”
The 16-week program provides free kitchen and life skills training to help people pursue sustainable careers in the food industry.
Now nearing graduation, Ana is excited to start her career as a chef. She wants more restaurant experience and hopes to continue her culinary education.
Her dream is to return to Venezuela to open a restaurant, perhaps gourmet. “In my country, there’re not a lot of restaurants like that,” she said. “I want to open something new.”
“I thought (pantries) were for people who were less fortunate, but anybody could be less fortunate in a day or in a second,” Courtney James said.
As the Covid-19 pandemic swept across Richmond, Virginia in the spring, James lost her job as a supervisor at a group home.
Her son Carter James, 4, loves to eat fruit, but she couldn’t afford to buy it for him without an income.
Four months passed before she found a new job in mental health skill building. The pay wasn’t as good, but one of her clients told her about Ephesus Food Pantry, which works with Feed More food bank, a member of the Feeding America network. The pantry now helps fill in the gaps.
“I’m glad they’re giving greens,” she said, as she loaded up her car with a Thanksgiving meal she’d prepare for her family. “When I came I thought, well, I can use this, especially during a pandemic.”