Healthcare Foundation aims to fight food insecurity
As residents in counties across Western North Carolina continue to face food insecurity issues, the Haywood Health Care Foundation is stepping up to put a dent in the problem for two of the community’s most vulnerable groups — children and elderly individuals.
To further that effort, the nonprofit has announced it is using the proceeds from this year’s golf tournament to go toward fighting hunger. Money raised last year went toward Haywood Community College’s new nursing building, but this year, the organization identified another problem it wanted to address.
Haywood County Health and Human Services Director Sarah Henderson is on the Healthcare Foundation Board and sits on the committee charged with putting the golf tournament together.
“We wanted to focus on need in community with the mill closure and grocery prices,” she said. “We tried to see how we could touch a large group of people while also serving the community.”
That included considering both kids who may not eat much if anything at home and older folks who use Meals on Wheels.
Meals on Wheels is a service through which about 700 meals are delivered every week to elderly residents who don’t cook for themselves and don’t have much family around to ensure they are eating well. Henderson said there’s about a 45% gap between what Health and Human Services pays for the service and what they’re given by the state for the program. That amounts to about $16,500.
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Henderson noted that Meals on Wheels is important to some of these residents, especially those who are isolated, because it may be the most human interaction they get all week.
“Not only are we feeding them, but we may be nurturing other aspects of their lives,” she said. “And we find other needs by seeing them. Maybe they need social services.”
The other population heavily impacted by food insecurity is children whose parents have had trouble putting food on the table for their families amid rampant inflation coming off the tail-end of the pandemic shutdowns.
Allison Francis has been Haywood County Schools’ nutrition director for 14 years. She said the need for nutrition assistance skyrocketed during those shutdowns. At that time, the school system provided a curbside meal service that offered food at no cost to anyone in the community under the age of 18. In the almost two years that program ran, it served over 1 million meals in Haywood.
“We got so many comments from the community about how nice it was that people could get those meals,” Francis said.
But the food insecurity issues highlighted by the pandemic haven’t waned much.
Francis said she has managers at schools who tell her there are kids who come in Monday “starving” after not getting food during the weekend. Of course, having to deal with food insecurity causes plenty of issues for students, including a lack of focus in the classroom.
“If you come to school and you didn’t have much for dinner the night before and you don’t have breakfast, and you’re hungry and your stomach is growling, that makes it hard,” Francis said.
With 57% of Haywood County students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, the approval recently came through to allow all students to receive free breakfast and lunch without having to fill out any forms.
However, there are some students whose need goes even beyond lunch and dinner. Some go back for seconds to either get food for dinner or some to take home for the weekend. These additional servings are not covered. The school system has an angel fund that relies on donations and grants to cover the difference.
CeCe Hipps co-chairs the foundation’s golf committee along with her husband, Rob Roland. She said the committee and the larger board is excited to use funds raised at the event to benefit some of the most vulnerable members of the community. She said the event itself, long a staple in Haywood County, will be a ton of fun. At the end of the day, golfers will have the chance to gather at Laurel Ridge’s clubhouse to receive awards and enjoy a pasta dinner.
“This is going to be a great event raising money for our nonprofit health foundation,” she said. “All the proceeds will go toward the food insecurity issue some people face in the county.”
Anyone interested in donating, volunteering or participating in the tournament should reach out to the foundation at 828.452.8343.
