Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Food Bank has collaborated with our partner agencies more than ever before
to make sure everyone in our community has access to healthy and nutritious food. One of those agencies is Episcopal Farmworker
Ministry (EFwM) located in Dunn, North Carolina.
EFwM responds to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families, and actively
supports opportunities for them to become self-directive. They provide a great deal of resources to the people they service including
clothes, education, but most importantly, food. Throughout their 40 years of operation, they have created a safe space for their
community. “Most of the population that we serve is the Latino population and they trust us. We speak Spanish, and we make sure to
go that extra mile to get people those staple foods that they need. We have even seen people outside of our service area come to us
for help because we are a trusted organization,” says Lariza Garzón, Executive Director of EFwM.
Our partnership with Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry has helped them serve more people, but the need is still great. “When it
comes to food distribution, we are serving at least 250 people, every two weeks. Usually in the time in between distributions, we
have to put some food together for families that can’t make it to the next distribution. We couldn’t do it without the Food Bank,
that is impossible,” remarks Juan Carabaña, a Program Coordinator with EFwM, when speaking about the increased need in their
communities.
Team members at EFwM want to strengthen their partnership with the Food Bank so that they can offer programs to the people
in their communities that teach about nutrition, something that they believe would be beneficial. They recently received new
refrigerators and freezers, which means they are able to distribute more fresh, nutritious products like frozen meat, produce, and dairy.
It’s important to EFwM to offer foods customary to the Latinx diet, or foods that are culturally appropriate for the people they
predominately serve. “Of all the ways that we can help, food is one of the biggest ways to do that here. We would love to one day
stop giving food because the people have stopped needing it but until then, we will make sure they have food.”
We look forward to strengthening our partnership with Episcopal Farmworker Ministry to nourish more people and ultimately ensure
no one goes hungry.
