At a recent food giveaway hosted by Communities in Partnership in East Durham, I worked with a small group of volunteers to distribute boxes of fresh produce, meat, and pantry goods. Residents lined up 45 minutes before the giveaway started, and we ran out of food within 20 minutes. 

Credit: Photo courtesy of the subject

Among the community members we turned away were a family of eight, with kids ranging from infants to teenagers; a woman who recently found out she had stage 3 cancer and is on a fixed income; a woman who had lost her job and had very little left in her bank account to cover groceries; and a woman on medical leave with limited mobility from a surgery and who could not keep up with the rising cost of food. 

I left feeling hopeless and frustrated that we couldn’t do more. We have seen an increase in the number of people seeking food assistance, and Durham is reaching a point where poorer residents are at a greater risk of going hungry because of the rapidly rising costs of living. With the rebirth of the city within the last few decades and more money flowing in, our most vulnerable communities are being left behind. 

Food insecurity comes from intentional divestment from communities and from funding being stripped from programs that serve at-risk households. While Durham County has been putting funding into fighting food insecurity, the City of Durham has lagged behind and must do more. For residents caught in the cracks, they must deal with the consequences of a heavy focus on money being put toward development projects while an increasingly growing poor population is not considered in the expansion. Funding alone won’t ensure success, though. Overcoming food insecurity requires us to listen to the voices experiencing it. And while local community partners and organizations are working to combat the issue of hunger in our city, they cannot do the work alone. There needs to be robust support from city and state government, the private sector, and the citizens of our community. 

The Double Bucks Program is a great example of how the broader community has worked together to fight food insecurity. Double Bucks operates by matching the purchases made by people who use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or EBT benefits at markets, effectively doubling their purchasing power. For every $10 spent in SNAP/EBT funds, an additional $10 is contributed by the program at various farmers’ markets located in Durham and Orange Counties. Since the program’s establishment in 2013, the response from the community has been a success, reaching people who otherwise would be unable to afford local and fresh food, while also investing in the local economy. When I was vending at farmers’ markets in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, we had people who utilized Double Bucks at the stand, including a young family of four who would often buy food from us to help feed their kids; an elderly woman on a fixed income, who was always happy to buy fresh items weekly from vendors; and so many others who were able to purchase healthy food from the markets for their meals.

By 2023, nearly 700 unique families had shopped with their SNAP/EBT cards at participating farmers’ markets. The Double Bucks Program relies on funding from local governments, nonprofits, grants, and philanthropic entities; currently, funding is projected to run out in 2025. (The City of Durham, which holds approximately 85 percent of the population of Durham County, has put $0 aside for the Double Bucks Program.) Orange County will see its funding end in September; it is currently raising $30,000 to continue the program for over 500 families who use Double Bucks at local markets in the county. Such a vital program could see a reduction in offerings to the community or, worst-case scenario, end altogether. 

But the challenge of food insecurity isn’t unique to Durham. The number of families across the United States who are food insecure or on the brink of becoming food insecure is rising. Our federal government spent $89.3 billion in 2020 to combat food insecurity, with SNAP being the largest program receiving federal funding. In response to COVID-19, spending on SNAP increased by 15 percent as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, which significantly reduced the number of food-insecure households until funding ended in September 2021. Investments at the federal, state, and local levels are needed to tackle this issue.

With state officials working to defund programs that combat inequities and with federal assistance running out, the food insecurity issue in Durham is getting worse. Our response as a city should be to combat hunger at the source. When I think back on the people who waited for food at the giveaway, I wonder: If we as a city really believed that food is a human right, would we be in the same position we are in now? Durham could be a place where no one has to worry about accessing and affording food. Programs like Double Bucks are a crucial part of the solution to ensure we are a vibrant, prosperous community where no one goes hungry. It’s time for our local government to recognize this crucial point and make programs like Double Bucks a priority.

Courtney Smith is a chef and the director of the Culinary Femme Collective.

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