Hello, hello hello terrific listeners. My name is Courtney Bipple, reference librarian extraordinaire at the Durham Tech Library. I hope you had a wonderful long weekend and a great holiday with a ton of delicious food and desserts. I myself ate quite a bit of food and dessert and... no regrets. Today's library update is that there is still time to finish the Durham Tech Read Great Things Challenge. We actually have two challenges happening this year. One is the 12 category read great things challenge and then there's the extra challenge where if you read 20 or more books, you have won the Above Average Reading Challenge. I've linked information about both of these challenges in the show notes. So go ahead and check it out. The deadlines to finish these challenges are not until the end of the calendar year. If you feel like you might not be able to finish I highly recommend graphic novels. They're quick reads and often have really, truly, amazing artwork. Today I'm talking to Jess Dormady. She's our volunteer services coordinator here at Durham Tech and she runs the Campus Harvest Food Pantry. She is always a delight to talk to so I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I did.
What is the campus Harvest Food Pantry and who can use it?
So the Campus Harvest Food Pantry is Durham Tech's free food pantry that's located on Main Campus. We are open to any currently enrolled Durham Tech students as well as all employees. We are considered a self selection model. So what that means is we don't determine your need. The students and employees can determine their level of need. That looks like how frequently they might visit the food pantry. We're open every week. So certainly a shopper could come on a weekly basis or maybe you feel you only need it once a week or every other week.
Even over the holidays?
That's a great question. We are actually only ever in session when classes are in session. And we will be closed of course during winter break. But we are preparing for winter break. We have what we call winter boxes. So we're gonna be doubling up even almost tripling up on the amount of food we sent home to get folks through that almost a month that we're not going to be at Durham Tech.
That sounds very helpful. What kinds of items can a person receive at the food pantry? And is there a limit to how often they can get certain items?
Like I said, a person could shop at the food pantry every single week that we're open if they want. And we actually, especially now with COVID-19 response, we are providing far more items than we used to. So on a given week, if you were to shop at our food pantry, you would get a large grocery bag, we use the food lion reusable bags, they're pretty sizable. So a full grocery bag full of food. It's usually non perishable items. So canned goods, pasta, things like that. A frozen family-sized meal, courtesy of Chef Jordan and the Durham Tech Cafe, which by the way, have some stellar reviews. People are loving them.
I have to say I've had their food and it is pretty good.
It's so good. Yeah, so the students, we have not gotten a single negative like at all like just rave reviews for the frozen meals and they're really sizable. They're those large foil pans that you can pop in the oven and they can serve probably a good eight or so servings. They're pretty, pretty hefty.
Nice.
Yeah, frozen family meals, that's new since Coronavirus. And since we reopened. Fresh produce, which we've always served and we get fresh produce from Briggs Avenue Community Garden, from the Food Bank of Central Eastern North Carolina, from Interfaith Food Shuttle, and also from just some independent donors in general too. So we have, I don't know if you've seen our tents in the Phillips parking lot, but we definitely look like a little mini farmers market. It's pretty nice. Usually a good one to two, sometimes three, bags of produce. We definitely try to get students to eat their veggies. We'll friendly peer pressure you into eating veggies.
What an excellent use of peer pressure.
Yeah, if you're going to do it do in a good way make a positive, right? We also provide household hygiene items. So this is something we've always provided but again like it's increased tremendously since Coronavirus. Paper products for example. We have toilet paper.
Toilet paper!
Right? It's like gold.
It is like gold.
Yeah, paper products like paper towels, dish detergent, laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner, everything from personal hygiene items to household hygiene items. And it varies week to week as to what we have but we definitely always have feminine hygiene items. So definitely, you know, if folks need those because we are supply for those. Also something we've started branching out into now, especially since Maggie West joined us as our basic needs coordinator. We now have diapers. So we partner with Diaper Bank, which is a fantastic Durham nonprofit, and as well as Welcome Baby. So both of those nonprofits support us with diapers so we're able to distribute diapers and baby wipes as well to parents who need those.
I'm sure that's extremely appreciated. It's not like you can reuse a diaper.
Not recommended. And my team actually did some math recently. And we were kind of like, okay, what is, because someone actually asked me like, what's the estimated value? You know of what you're giving away? I'm like, that's a great question, English major that I am. So we sat down with a calculator, and we found/estimated that the large bag of groceries is usually around $30 worth of value, the frozen family meal is usually around $15, $16 value. And then the fresh produce can be anywhere from probably $10 to $12. So when we calculate that not even counting the household hygiene items, or the diapers or any of that kind of stuff, that's approximately $55 that a student can save in a week, especially if someone is shopping with us on a weekly basis, it adds up.
Yeah.
That's one thing, that we look at the food pantry as a supplement. We can't solve everything. But it is a supplement, you know. And our purpose really is to meet our students where they're at. It's hard being a student, and it's even harder if you're hungry. Yeah, we want our students focused on obtaining their education goals. And that's hard to do. When you're worried about putting food on the table for yourself and for your family, the food pantry, it alleviates some of the financial burdens for some of our students.
We shouldn't have to worry about food.
No, not at all. And definitely we've seen a lot of new faces coming through the pantry and we have a lot of those curbside tent conversations fully masked up and six feet apart. But talking to people who say, you know, I didn't think I would need a food pantry. You know, but I'm really grateful this resource exists.
Speaking of fully masked up, has the pantry made safety accommodations for COVID-19 besides just wearing masks?
Oh, have we! Oh, man, the proposals and the amount of effort that has gone into our safety procedures now just really amazing. You know, we were closed after March, of course, along with everything else. And that was really frustrating. It's frustrating to have a fully stocked pantry, again that had toilet paper, and we were closed when campus was closed. We were able to reopen in April, late April, April 29 at a remote location. Actually, at Durham County Cooperative Extension Office. So we partnered with Extension Office. They're our friends, especially with our partnership with Briggs Garden. And so we were able to move our food pantry to their location and actually got our first phase where we opened our drive thru curbside pantry. And so Erin and I, we worked with, of course, Durham Tech's COVID response team, we also worked though with the county at the Cooperative Extension office who had some great health experts. They were really helping us create that plan. And that proposal to make sure every every aspect of safety was covered, you know, so we were able to do that. And from April to the summer, we're over, you know, at the corporate extension office. And then of course, in early August, we were able to move back to Durham Tech, and it felt really good to be home. You know, we continued though that curbside food pantry model, so that looks like three tents in the Phillips parking lot. With multiple tables set up, it looks like us being roped off and having double tables to keep people apart. We have tape on the ground showing where you stand. Of course, everyone wears masks. And you know, we haven't had a single person tried to approach us without a mask. And I'm very impressed with our Durham Tech Community, people are really respectful and seem to value and appreciate safety.
That's always really good to hear.
It is. We were nervous when we opened up and we were just so thankful. Again, we we have our spray provided by Durham Tech. So we wipe down the table between every single use, we're now just compulsive table wipers anyway, and you want to talk about hand sanitizer, my hands crack from all the use, yeah, have masks on and keep socially distant. And then if we do hear anything about like, if a student is sick, and they can't come, we actually do offer limited delivery now. So this is something completely new. And we have the new mobile health lab van that Durham Tech has. And so Whitney, she drives that for us. And so we have usually about a dozen deliveries that she'll do every week. And these are limited though to folks who lack transportation, or you know, are sick basically. And what she'll do is she'll drop their deliveries on a doorstep, and they're pretty high in demand. So we really have to kind of look each week as to where the need is, as of so far they've been able to meet everyone's delivery need. So we're really grateful for that. And I also want to mention, we expanded our pantry hours. So if you remember, if you can, if your mind can go back to last year or even February of this year, you might remember we normally open for two hours on Wednesday and two hours on Thursday. So for a total of four hours. We are now open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from noon to five so now we're open for 10 hours a week as opposed to the four and we do that, again, to accommodate people's schedules. We know, you know, our students are busy, they're working. They're probably a full time teacher with their kids. You know, there's so many competing responsibilities. So we try to open that window for the pickup.
That's awesome. How can people support the food pantry? You're obviously doing incredibly important work and being amazing at it. So how can we support you?
Well, the answer no one's gonna like is... not by volunteering. I've gotten so many volunteer requests and you know my position half of it is volunteer coordinator right and the other half is food pantry. So the Volunteer Coordinator part of my heart is breaking right now because we're not allowed to do face to face volunteer engagement and the outcry has been I'm so huge and I really appreciate that. Alas, no volunteers for safety reasons. But honestly, financial contributions are where it's at. And that's what could help us the most. Donate on the food pantry's giving page. And there's a drop down box. That'll say food pantry. That's honestly the best way you can serve us. And that money we can stretch because we can get food for 19 cents a pound at the food bank versus going retail and shopping. Right. And I think that's the other thing is people like shopping retail to make donations. I do too. Don't get me wrong. Like I used to love going out and buying stuff and then bringing bags into the pantry to donate. But realistically, it's just not safe to have people coming to the campus like that. So financial contributions are best.
Okay, that's really good to know.
Can I make one plug?
Yeah!
We are looking for a freezer. Because of all those wonderful frozen meals. We do have two normal fridges, refrigerators in the pantry with, you know, your normal top face freezer, but we're actually looking for a stand up freezer. So I just figured I'd put the word out if anyone listening happens to have a used one. I mean, I don't want to be picky. But oh, I don't know somewhere between 13 to 16 cubic feet that stands up would be-
Not too picky. But if anyone happens to have a giant freezer in their garage that they're not using, please.
I mean, you never know unless you ask.
You honestly don't. You really don't know. It's amazing things people keep in their garages.
It is true. I will say, you know, I'm sure someone out there has a freezer. But yeah, we were thinking of stand up one honestly. Because if you see our pantry right now, we are absolutely full from all the stock. So it's a matter of what will fit.
Awesome. I mean, it's a good problem to have.
Yeah.
And the food pantry, if I remember correctly, used to hold in person cooking demonstrations. I know you had a cookbook come out one year. Are there any virtual opportunities available for students to learn about cooking and nutrition? Especially while we're in this pandemic? And everybody's at home? And maybe they're up for experimenting in the kitchen?
Yeah, I think a lot of people are experimenting in the kitchen, being creative. Don't be like me, where you just sit around eating cereal. Definitely. Try try and be experimental in the kitchen. Right. And that's what we're trying to encourage students to do. We used to have amazing in person cooking demonstrations. We partner with the food bank of Central Eastern North Carolina. They have two fantastic, charismatic dieticians, Sarah and Jenny and our students loved coming in person and talking with them, they get to get hands on with the recipes. And you know, we are sad that we don't get to do that in person element anymore. Sarah and Jenny are amazing. They started creating these cooking demonstration videos now. And they do it in English and Spanish. Production quality is pretty good, I have to say. So we actually just launched what is now called our virtual cooking challenge. So our first one was this month launched, of course with the virtual health fair. And so that was Jenny doing a video showing how to make English muffin pizzas, which is a fine like who doesn't like pizza English muffin. It's a healthy twist on pizza.
Yum!
We released that video on our social media accounts. And then the food pantry which was really cool, we were able to make recipe kits. So we made about 60 recipe kits that included the recipe card and English and Spanish and included English muffins and pizza sauce. So some of the key ingredients for the recipe. And we were able to distribute those. And we spread the word that they had a week, week and a half I believe to make their own English muffin pizza. And then all they have to do is submit a picture to me either on social media @DTstudentlife or to my email address. And then we were able to pick winners. So we chose our winner, they're going to receive a 14 piece cookware set. Brand new, pretty nice. Yeah, courtesy of SGA. Yeah, and then also some of our second and third place winners would get Food Lion digital gift cards. So yeah, and so we're definitely going to do this every month, I think so we'll be bringing another one shortly enough because December is right around the corner.
Really cool. Are those cooking demonstration videos linked on your webpage.
The video was on the virtual healthcare webpage, it's definitely gonna be on all of our social media. And then I also send the email out to our food pantry shoppers, too, that has the video. But just just to be clear, any Durham Tech student can participate. You don't have to be a food pantry shopper. Anyone, any Durham Tech student who's currently enrolled can participate in the contest.
Good to know.
And I'll say this much. Submit stuff, these virtual competitions, there's prizes there, you know, and not as many people are as engaged as we would like, at times we have some good engagement. Bu,t if you think "I'm not a natural cook," or "they wouldn't choose me," you never know, you really don't.
And there are a lot of things pulling for people's attention right now. So you never know where they're looking. If they're if everybody else is looking the other way. And you're looking that way. You might just end up with full kitchen set.
Oh, yeah, very, very true.
And of course, I have to ask you, what book are you reading?
So actually just finished this book of the weekend. It's called Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightning, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America by Erin Geiger Smith. And this was one of those checkboxes in the reading challenge. And I'm really glad that I read it actually. It's like 250 or so pages. It's a really quick read and I liked it because it gives a really good overview. Definitely there are a lot of books that go into depth. This was a good overview. Just to kind of refresher. It has some great refresher on the voting history and suppression of the vote. You know, but also what I found. The most interesting was the last third of the book called he called a vexing voting topics like gerrymandering, the Electoral College, how does that work? You know, some of those topics that I think probably most of us need some refreshers on. So it was pretty solid. I think I'm going to recommend it.
Awesome. It's great that it's for the reading challenge. Everybody should do the reading challenge if you want to do it. You can find the information on our blog. And it sounds like a great book because a lot of times books about voting really go into deep history and data and like spreadsheets and yes, statistics, and you're just like, I'm not gonna remember this.
Yeah, there are definitely, I say the middle part of the book. I was like, Yeah, I know most of this and I kind of skimmed it. But definitely you can do a deeper dive and I jotted some notes. I'm like, I'm gonna research some of this these topics further. So I think it's a great kind of entry level book.
Thank you so much for talking to me today about the food pantry. I know that not everyone at Durham Tech knows about this incredible service and so I'm glad that we can get the word out.
Yes, thank you and word of mouth is so important to us too. So you know, I'll say this. If you're an instructor, please mention us to your students. Put us in your syllabus. Inform students what we are and what they can get. If you're a student, please spread the word to your peers. I think word of mouth is probably the best way that people learn about the pantry. Thank you so much for having me. This is exciting.
And thank you again to Jes Dormady for joining me on the podcast and giving us so much great information about the food pantry. There is a link to the food pantry information and where you can donate in the show notes. I've also put Jesse's email address in the show notes in case you happen to know of a big freezer that the food pantry could have. It's for a good cause! Have a wonderful day.