Hello Raleigh!!

This was yet another busy year for Food Not Bombs Raleigh. We maintained and/or expanded most of our programs including: weekly food, clothing, produce/canned goods, and toiletries distribution every Saturday of the year at Moore Square; a weekly grocery program delivering perishables and fresh produce; a weekday meals distribution; a monthly diaper delivery program; and a holiday gift program. HUGE THANKS to y’all and our incredible team of volunteers for helping to keep all these programs running smoothly! Keep reading to get a summary of our progress with each program this year and scroll to the bottom to see pictures. 

Our general distribution event (Distro) is going strong. We are out at Moore Square Park every Saturday from 3pm-5pm rain or shine. We still haven’t missed a weekend since we began in the Summer of 2020 and consistently have a line of guests waiting for us. Distro is open to everyone to volunteer or to pick up food from. Anyone is welcome, come visit us sometime! 

Our meals team grew in numbers this year and new volunteers consistently made hot meals almost weekly at Pullen Baptist Church on Hillsborough St., who have graciously offered their industrial kitchen for us to use. We also have support from The Produce Project, who have provided fresh produce for us to hand out at distro and cook hot meals with every Saturday. Whenever we have leftovers after the regular distribution, some of the volunteers walk over to the bus station and serve the people there, ensuring greater impact and zero waste. Thank you to all the volunteers who stepped up to the challenge and consistently cooked hot meals for the community!   

The Clothes Not Bombs project also had a great year! We had huge donations from the community which helped fulfill the general clothing needs of the people. Apart from that, we bought high-demand needs such as socks, blankets, hand & toe warmers & emergency blankets which were distributed among the community. We fulfilled special requests ranging from boots, tents, sleeping bags, blankets, portable cooking stoves, etc. We also added new community partners: Clouds Brewing Taproom was added as a donation drop-off spot and The Cupcake Shoppe in downtown Raleigh hosted a coat drive for us this winter. During the December holidays (right now!) we had a holiday gift drive which helped us provide gifts to ~100 kids. The program was very successful last year, so this year we created a separate project for the holiday drive. A big challenge we faced this year was lack of volunteers to have distro every Saturday - we encourage people to please volunteer if you are available! 

Our grocery delivery project delivers nonperishables and fresh produce to ~20 people every week! This is the 3rd year in a row that this program has been running successfully thanks to the help of several new, dedicated volunteers! This project is now running out of Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub (RUMAH), which is a new radical social center in Downtown Raleigh. 

The weekday meals project, which is a smaller version of our regular Saturday distribution, also had a busy and fantastic year. A small team of volunteers make hot meals and distribute them to the community at the bus station across Moore Square on Tuesday evenings. The team also distributes granola bars, fruit snacks, water (and lemonade during summer), and essential toiletries like toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, soaps and napkins along with the hot meals. 

Thanks to some new community partners, we have a few new items we are able to distribute free of cost! We partnered with Diaper Train to provide free diapers to anyone across Wake county. Community members fill out our form telling us the size and number of diapers needed, which we compile and send to the Diaper Train. Once they are ready, FNB volunteers pick them up and sort them into smaller bags as requested. Drivers then pick them up and deliver them to the families. We also recently partnered with SIRUM, a medical nonprofit, to obtain Emergency Contraceptives to distribute to the community. 

The Food Not Lawns project is currently on hiatus. Meanwhile, we are trying to figure out the next steps on how to create a more sustainable team and new potential garden locations. We’re talking to several other organizations about partnering for a collaborative sustainable gardening team where we can share tools and experiences. Hopefully this team will be back up and running soon!  

Thank you again for your support this year! We would not be able to keep all of these amazing programs running without you. We plan to continue and improve all our programs in 2024, and hopefully add more!

If you would like to learn more about how you can volunteer with any of the teams discussed above, visit our link tree and fill out our volunteer form!

In Solidarity and Radical Love,

Food Not Bombs Raleigh