Feed Durham Founder Katina Parker test tastes the first batch of chicken, smoked overnight, during April 2020, at the first cookout. Since 2020, Feed Durham has fed people through a combination of multi-day cookouts and food giveaways. Feed Durham is Black, Native, and LGBTQ+-led. During the pandemic, Feed Durham would cook outdoors for upwards of 1,000 people per day. Photo by Erin Bell.File:01B REQUIRED 20201101 FDNC BeautyPlate PhotobyKatinaParker 050A13478 cc sm.jpgIn addition to cooking for 1500 or more neighbors over the course of 3 to 4 days, at the end of each cookout, Feed Durham would make family-sized plates for volunteers called "Beauty Plates." This plate featured smoked chicken, braised carrot steaks, grilled butternut squash, smoked garlic brussel sprouts, charred garlic broccoli, smashed yams, caramelized carrots, roasted beets tropicale. The Feed Durham kitchen is gluten-free and soy-free. Most of their dishes are dairy-free, and the only meat cooked is poultry.File:20210718 FDNC Sun 11AM Burners-Grayson PhotobyKatinaParker 5DMIV 592A1242.jpgGrayson, a Feed Durham steward, spent two years learning to cook on giant 60- and 80-quart steam pots.File:20210925 PRIDE RichmondLady-Menu PhotobyKatinaParker 111123.jpgFeed Durham has become a fixture at Bull City Pride. In 2021, when the U.S. was still in shutdown, Feed Durham cooked for 1,000 and served food at PRIDE. That year, there were two vendors - us and Durham County, who set up a tent to test folks for STI's and COVID. The volunteer carrying this handwritten menu is one of several who traveled in from Richmond, to study with Feed Durham, as a part of its residency program. They hosted volunteers from Chicago, Baltimore, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Richmond. The normal Feed Durham menu consists of 20 different menu possibilities. That year, they curated a limited menu for PRIDE - smoked chicken, brown beans (vegan upon request), smashed yams (vegan). savory rice (vegan), greens (vegan), and cabbage (vegan).Feed Durham sends out Love Notes with each cooked meal or grocery bag, a practice started during the pandemic. The local independent print house Spee Dee Queu agreed to donate printed card stock. Teachers worked with their students to write holiday-themed and general messages. Community members gathered to write Love Notes for PRIDE. Gifted artists created astoundingly beautiful missives. In addition to the great tasting food, our neighbors have come to look forward to receiving custom blessings and artwork. There are message requirements such as no gaslighting, no overpromising, no toxic positivity.
Feed Durham is a mutual aid collective that came together in response to mounting hunger in the Durham, North Carolina area, due to COVID.[1] Since 2020, the collective has fed 200,000+ neighbors in need through sprawling no-contact cookouts, where around 500 people would receive full meals and grocery giveaways.[2][3] Through dozens of community partnerships, the collective feeds elders, people living in cars and on the streets, widows, unsupported LGBTQ+ folks, undocumented families, the homebound and chronically ill, elementary students and their families.[4]
Volunteers are community organizers, teachers, artists, farmers, parents, and everyday folks.[5] Feed Durham calls itself a multi-faith, multi-racial, intergenerational collective that feeds people without judgment, and it welcomes everyone so long as folks treat one another with respect and kindness. Parker herself has said the community is only as safe as its least hungry neighbor, a belief that drives Feed Durham's work.[6][7]
In Fall 2022, the collective launched a Neighborhood Service Corps Initiative to grow food for plant stands and community fridges; install raised garden beds for neighbors in need; redirect household excesses to people who need under-used belongings; and share skillsets like basic home repair, outdoor cooking, gardening, land acknowledgement, community organizing, planetary stewardship, etc.[8] In April 2022, Feed Durham launched their first Repair Clinic, teaching folks to fix household goods in order to minimize personal expenses and as a landfill diversion practice.[9]
During Summer 2023, "Lovingly Prepared by: A Multimedia Experience by Feed Durham" opened at the Durham Arts Council.[10] Covering both the first and second floor gallery spaces and curated by Feed Durham founder Katina Parker, the show featured artwork, photos, words and videos from a range of makers and community organizers, including:[11] Filmmaker/Photographer Katina Parker,
Sculptor/Muralist/Illustrator Dare Coulter,
Emmy-nominated journalist/TED Talk Podcast host Saleem Reshemwala,
Photographer Samantha Everette aka "The Shooting Beauty,"
Filmmaker Courtney Symone,
Filmmaker D.L. Anderson,
Photographer Tommy Coyote,
Photographer Anna Carson DeWitt,
Filmmaker Elizabeth Miller-Derstine,
Media Activist Jasmine Leeward,
Filmmaker Casey Toth (formerly of the Durham News + Observer).
At present, Feed Durham is focused on launching and sustaining a national mutual aid network, supporting neighbors who want to grow food for one another; developing lo-fi tech solutions to bridge gaps between available resources and the people who need them; liberating resources that lay dormant in warehouses and supply closets by soliciting those materials on behalf of under-resourced organizations/individuals who provide household/food goods to neighbors in need; and serving as a networking hub for Durham’s vibrant organizing community; and, of course, cooking, launching a nationwide program to install pallet gardens for low-income neighbors and teaching plant medicine.[12]
File:20211120 FDNC Thanksgivihng WritingVolunteerBoard PhotobyKatinaParker 100650.jpgA volunteer writes out the daily schedule to keep Feed Durham on track for their annual Thanksgiving Grocery Giveaway.File:20211120 FDNC ThanksgivingGroceryGiveAway KatinaParker 5DMIV 20211120 133625.jpgAnnual Thanksgiving Grocery Giveaway - Bags contained cabbage, kale, collards, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, onions, squash, spices, bread from 9th Street Bakery, free-range eggs,File:20221217 FDNC ThanksgivingGiveaway EST-AlltheBoxes PhotoByKatinaParker 105748.jpgDecember 2022, the annual Holiday Grocery Giveaway, Feed Durham scheduled to pack 600 bags for household. The Moore County power outage had occurred a few days prior.File:20230225 FDNC Greenhouse PhotoByKatinaParker 153022.jpgVolunteers love on baby vegetable plants in a greenhouse offered to Feed Durham by Jubilee Homes/Umstead Gardens. These plant starts were offered to neighbors at giveaways. In 2023, Feed Durham leaned into growing food for neighbors and supporting neighbors in growing food for one another.File:20230520 FDNC Harvest-HerbGarden PhotobyKatinaParker 140133.jpgIn 2020, Feed Durham volunteers installed 8 raised garden beds. In this photo, volunteers harvest fresh herbs right before heading to a produce giveaway. File:20211121 FDNC PORTRAIT-MrGlenn PhotobyKatinaParker 130412.jpgOne of dozens of community partners through whom Feed Durham distributes food, Mr. Glenn supports a group of elders and a blind community. Whenever Feed Durham receives texts or emails offering food for pick-up, a flurry of texts go out to partners describing what's available plus retrieval details. Fun Fact: the very cool Coca Cola truck in the photo happens to have a hydraulic lift that makes lifting boxes in and out of the truck bed easier. File:20230401 FDNC RepairClinic PhotoByKatinaParker 111453.jpgVolunteer Mark solders a lamp in front of the owner and other volunteers. In 2023, Feed Durham hosted its first ever Repair Clinic at The Scrap Exchange. Volunteers were recruited who could sew, weld, repair electronics, practice carpentry to teach volunteers and neighbors how to fix their damaged items. Dozens of community members brought in vacuums, beloved articles of clothing, lamps, furniture, etc. Upon repair, the item could be kept by its owner or donated. The collective began offering Repair Clinics to teach tactile skillsets that are rarely taught in school anymore, to divert from landfill, and to help neighbors reduce their expenses.File:20230606 FDNC VolAppreciationDinner CHCRepSpeaks PhotobyKatinaParker 195155.jpgIn 2023, Feed Durham hosts its first Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. Catered by long time supporter and inspiration, Vimala of Vimala's Curry Blossom with churros donated by Cocoa Cinnamon, and a rosewater-infused watermelon lemonade crafted by Katina. Sister Dolores of Community Health Coalition speaks to Feed Durham volunteers about the need for a universal school lunch program in order to create equal footing in the classroom for low-income children. The school cafeteria is the first place most children become aware of their social standing, based on the quality, care, and color of the food on their plate, she said.Feed Durham Volunteers move boxes of eggs to distribute for Thanksgiving.Error creating thumbnail: (From left) Natalie Bullock Brown and a nine-year old volunteer plate meals in May 2021.
