Community Engaged Research: Second Harvest Food Bank

Community Engaged Research: Second Harvest Food Bank

Haylea Kirkland, Marley Shattuck, Brendan Spencer, Hannah Tysinger
University Honors Program at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Introduction

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina works wholeheartedly for one challenging goal:

to eliminate hunger. They believe in the simple idea of feeding people, regardless of their

situation, support, age, gender, race, etc. Our group partnered with Second Harvest this semester

to learn more about their mission, engage with the communities they serve, and gather significant

data to contribute to their organization. After meeting with leaders within Second Harvest, we

determined our plan of action and set out to compile valuable research that they could utilize in

the future. Throughout the course of the semester, we collected data and participated in hands-on

volunteering to see how our own perspectives and views would be challenged in the process.

Through our data collection and personal interactions, we discovered significant findings to be

considered in future matters.

Importance of Research

By implementing Community Engaged Research (CER), we were able to collectively

decide the more pressing issues that our community faced. Second Harvest expressed their need

for more data on elderly impoverished citizens as well as additional resources for citizens

entering poverty. After taking these concerns into consideration, we decided that focusing our

research project on these matters would be most beneficial. Often, gathering data on senior

citizens who struggle with poverty and/or hunger is difficult due to many factors. They may have

enough money to cover their health and home costs but not food or vice-versa. Understanding

the reality of the issue is key to addressing it. When it comes to citizens entering poverty, finding

resources may be confusing and difficult; this is something we wanted to look into for that

reason.
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Research Questions

1. How have poverty trends changed over the past few years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Area, particularly trends among the elderly?

2. What resources are available to members of the community who are food insecure? How

can we provide resources to newly impoverished citizens, both young and elderly?

Positionality on Poverty and Hunger

Haylea Kirkland

Brought up in a middle-class family with two parents who both work full time, I have

never personally had to worry about going hungry. My parents worked extremely hard to provide

the best life that they possibly could afford to for my brother and I. Even when things got tight

financially, they did their best the shield my brother and I from it growing up, particularly in our

own household. Growing up in a poor county, I was ultimately exposed to it at a young age. I

quickly became aware of the scarcity of food that some individuals and families faced. It was not

until high school that I became more directly involved with this sector of the community.

During my junior year of high school, I joined the Breakfast Buddies program that my

school offered. In this program, myself, along with a group of other students, would travel to a

local elementary or middle school every Friday morning for the duration of the academic year.

During the hour we spent there, we were paired up with a student or pair of students whom

would be our buddy for the year, and we would eat breakfast with them (hence the program

name, Breakfast Buddies). Each of the students would be deemed at risk for various reasons;

troubles at home being the main one. Throughout my time spent in high school I also spent time
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volunteering at a local soup kitchen a few times a month. Unlike Breakfast Buddies, through this

I was exposed exclusively to those (primarily adults) who faced hunger.

Marley Shattuck

I consider myself to have grown up privileged; although my single mother struggled with

money, she was always able to provide my sister and I with everything we needed. With the help

of my grandparents, I was fortunate enough to attend a private Christian school for a significant

portion of my childhood and adolescence. Although I will always cherish and value my years in

private school, my experience lacked diversity and exposure to the real world and real issues. It

wasnt until I started school at a public high school and began volunteering that I started to

understand the reality of the world around me.

During my junior year of high school, I started volunteering frequently at the Brown Bag

Ministry in my hometown of Apex, NC. During my time at Brown Bag, I packaged meals for the

homeless of Raleigh and delivered the food to Downtown Raleigh where homeless citizens were

able to get food from us. Meeting and seeing the citizens opened my eyes to the harsh reality of

hunger and homelessness within my own community; it was difficult to witness but rewarding to

volunteer and help with what I could. Brown Bag Ministry taught me that small gestures can

make enormous impacts on important issues, and it was this lesson that inspired me to pursue

membership in the University Honors Program.

UHP taught me countless lessons in my first year and it continues to push me as I

progress through college. Classes such as Honors Colloquium and Citizenship encouraged me to

look at every aspect of a social or moral issue and seek to find solutions to heavy problems.

These courses, in addition to conversations with my fellow peers, have truly changed and opened
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my mind to new ideas and outlooks. I used to view some people living in poverty as taking

advantage of the system and not working hard enough to get out of their situation; however,

simply through the Second Harvest partnership and Citizenship class alone I have quickly

learned that this is not the case and that there are many factors to consider. The reality of the

situation is that many hungry citizens are working incredibly hard but still cannot make ends

meet at the end of the day. Another sad truth Ive learned is that many of these people feel that

they have no choice but to turn to selling drugs or other illegal practices to provide for the

families they love and cherish wholeheartedly. I can end my time in this partnership and course

by genuinely saying that my mind has been opened for the better and I have learned more than I

thought possible. My most significant takeaway from this experience is that no issue or person is

one-sided nor should be seen in only one light; every issue has important factors to consider, and

acknowledging that is key to having meaningful and potentially life-changing conversations.

Brendan Spencer

Growing up, I never personally had to struggle with hunger or poverty; my family was

well enough off that when hard times came, we were fortunate enough to stay on top of things

like that. However, the area that I come from does have a lot of families that struggle with

making ends meet and worry about putting enough food on the table. This includes both friends

of mine and family members. I have watched people very dear to me struggle through such

difficult situations; you know theyre going through hard times but they try and put on a brave

face and muddle through. Fortunately, I also live in a community where we take care of each

other's needs, and when theres someone around us whos going through a hard time, whether

struggling to pay bills or feeding their family, we always step up for them. This gives me a
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perspective on the issue that literally hits close to home; though I havent experienced hunger or

poverty myself, it affects me daily through those around me. It really makes me appreciate what I

have and gives me the desire to help others. Being raised in a very Christian home, putting others

before myself is something thats always been important to me, but going through this time at

college has me realizing that the current system that is in place to assist those in need fails them

primarily because people either are unwilling to give of themselves or expect to be served by a

system which they can abuse, thereby exhibiting flaws on both ends.

Hannah Tysinger

Growing up I would say my household was one that was considered in the lower level

income bracket. I was fortunate enough that myself, my mother, and my brother were able to live

with my grandparents. If it was not for them I am not exactly sure where I would have ended up.

My family had to apply for programs to receive free lunch and to have my school fees waived.

Therefore, I have seen first hand how these programs can benefit those who are in need. I even

remember how sometimes the lunch I had at school was the most sustainable meal I had that day.

However, even though my family faced these struggles I always had what was an absolute

necessity.

The town I came from was also able to expand my horizons on the issues of poverty and

hunger. My town was very segregated, one part was those who were extremely in need, which

included the homeless, and the other was the families who were doing pretty well for themselves.

Therefore, even though I faced struggles of my my own, I was able to see that there were

individuals who were worse off than me. I would say the biggest issue I noticed throughout my
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upbringing was that many kids were embarrassed that they needed assistance and there were

many parents who were too scared to ask for help.

These experiences are what led me to volunteer because no one should suffer due to the

fact that they do not ask for help. I participated in helping feed the homeless and helping kids

during Christmas because I also feel students should not have to suffer by missing out on special

experiences because they do not have as much money. After witnessing the things I did growing

up and volunteering with Second Harvest through this project I would say my eyes were opened.

I witnessed the more extreme sides of hunger and poverty and I feel moved to help combat these

issues in any way possible.

Research Design & Methods

The design of our research is based on the idea of Community Engaged Research- a style

of research that takes the entire community and several perspectives into consideration.

Engaging in this type of research consists of a community partner making connections with and

observations of a specific community with the goal of holistically bettering that community.

Research that takes a hands-on approach with the community citizens ultimately results in more

thorough findings; additionally, it better addresses the genuine needs and concerns of the

citizens. When citizens have an active role in the research process, they are able to comfortably

and confidently express their concerns and voice their opinions. Direct contact between the

community partner and the citizens results in a strong relationship between the two. Because of

this, an ultimately highly rewarding research process and positive change to the community will

be the result.
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With this in mind, we met with Volunteer Coordinators at Second Harvest to learn about

their perspectives and goals for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community as well as made

observations of the community that Second Harvest interacts with. When we first met with

Volunteer Coordinator Nancy Hagerman, we were interested to hear about her story and learn

about her goals for us in the partnership. The two primary research ideas she expressed an

interest in included data on trends of the elderly in poverty as well as resources for newly

impoverished citizens and community members who want to help out.

Gathering data on the trends of elderly citizens in poverty and resources for hungry,

impoverished citizens consisted of a thorough online research process. We all individually

searched and read journals, articles, and relevant websites and came together to discuss our

findings. By doing our own individual research, we were able to compile a significant amount of

different, interesting findings when we came together.

To gather a better understanding of the core issues of hunger, we held an interview with

Hagerman and did hands-on volunteering with Second Harvest. Hagerman discussed her

disbelief with the notion that the families Second Harvest serves are unemployed and not

working hard; rather, she noted that the vast majority of the parents and families they serve are

employed and working day in and day out but simply cannot make ends meet. The primary

problem, she believes, lies in the rising costs of living in the Charlotte area. Minimum wage rates

are no longer sufficient to maintain the expensive living costs that keep increasing in our area.

The final and arguably most important method of research we did was our community

volunteering and observations. This was the key component to our community engaged research;

through our observations we were able to meet community members and get a better
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understanding of the issues that Second Harvest works to address. Our first volunteering

opportunity was a Mobile Food Pantry held by Second Harvest at Albemarle Elementary School

here in Charlotte. Mobile pantries are held roughly 12-14 times a month at various schools and

serve the purpose of providing groceries to the families of students who receive free lunches due

to financial hardships. During this pantry, we unpacked boxes of food and organized them into

grocery bags; once we completed the setup, families of students were able to come through each

station and take a variety of food items. We noted during the pantry that the large majority of

families were Hispanic with a still significant amount of African American families as well. The

most rewarding observation and part of the experience for us, however, was seeing the smiling

faces of the young students as they helped their parents and family members carry the groceries.

Despite a rough financial situation, the students and their families were warm, kind, and

enthusiastic; that alone enhanced the volunteering experience.

The second observation we made was on the shopping floor at Second Harvest, where we

witnessed the food supply storage and how partner agencies obtain food from Second Harvest.

Partners were only allotted 30 minutes to obtain food to reach their quota, so the floor was quite

hectic; the partners then placed their food on the scale and were charged by the pound for the

food they collected. The experience was valuable for us as we were able to witness the inner

workings of the food distribution at Second Harvest.

Data Results & Analysis

While we were able to collect some information on local issues from interviews at

Second Harvest, part of our original project plan was to collect research on the issues of poverty

and food insecurity among the elderly, and information on assisting families who have been
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recently impoverished and are unsure where to turn; these specific areas were again selected

because of Second Harvests interest in knowing more about these increasing situations. We

started by looking at poverty and food insecurity on national and state levels and comparing that

to local statistics, specifically within the senior population.

Nationally the average poverty rate by state is between 9-15% by region, and though

North Carolina has been at the top of the national average for some time, at one point affecting

18% of the total population, we have seen a decrease in these numbers over the past 5 years,

which is mirrored in the elderly population by an equivalent poverty rate of about 9%. Strangely

enough, the poverty rate in Mecklenburg County has stayed roughly 2.5 percentage points below

the state average over that same period, while the total population of the county increases at

nearly double the rate of the state. However, these statistics can form false positives, especially

for groups like Second Harvest and their affiliates who base most of their work off of local

poverty. Amongst seniors this is especially the case, because the current rate of senior food

insecurity in North Carolina is 18.4% (eighth worst in the nation) compared to the national

average of 15.5%. While the poverty rates for Mecklenburg County have flatlined, food

insecurity rates among seniors have climbed to the state average, making it a significant issues

for those trying to fight local hunger (Food Insecurity, 2016).

What makes battling this issue most difficult is the extreme discrepancy between poverty

and food insecurity among seniors in the county. Food insecurity (18.4%) affects more than

double the number of seniors expected to be living in poverty (9%), a staggering thought

considering roughly a third of seniors locally live within range of the county poverty line, being

$26,000 a year per household (Mecklenburg, 2015). This is a primary example of how difficult it
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can be to calculate the number of people in need within range of Second Harvest, and how many

people could be at risk, because the standard measure of poverty doesnt take into account the

extra vulnerabilities that are faced by senior citizens; even those who may be able to afford

enough food for themselves, who arent technically living in poverty, may not be able to access

the appropriate resources due to lack of transportation, food preparation abilities, fixed incomes

or having to take medical costs into account. Increasing healthcare costs is one of the top reasons

that seniors citizens experience these types of situations; when calculating with included

healthcare costs, the senior poverty rate increases by over 14%. Having to make the choice

between food and medicine is also detrimental, because malnutrition is even more severe among

seniors and can subsequently increase healthcare costs by 300%. With about 10% of

Mecklenburg Countys population being elderly, this means that around 10,000 seniors locally

are living in poverty, while over 23,000 face food insecurity. Unfortunately, these numbers are

only projected to go up as we experience an increase in retirees with the aging Baby Boomer

generation, putting more stress on Social Security, Medicaid and programs like Second Harvest

trying to combat increasing senior food insecurity; it is estimated that, to get rid of all food

insecurity in Mecklenburg county (to supply every person in need with food for three months),

over $14.3 million in extra funding would be required (Seniors, September 2017).

This is a staggering estimate, which makes the problem local groups face in identifying

seniors in need all the more important; and many seniors will not even attempt to identify

themselves as in need or attempt to seek help, whether they dont know about available service

or dont want to ask. Households with seniors are statistically less likely to receive Supplemental

Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits than those without, and those same households
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are 30% more likely to make the choice of medical costs over food, in Mecklenburg County.

Because seniors are so obviously at a disadvantage in this system where things only seem to be

getting worse, it is important that groups like Second Harvest and their affiliates know how to

best approach an issue like senior hunger (Hunger and Poverty, n.d.).

Literature Review

Food insecurity can be defined as lack of access...to enough food for an active, healthy

lifestyle for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate

foods, which has been shown to be a serious problem in Mecklenburg County. (Hunger and

Poverty, n.d.) Because this is such an important issue, we wanted to look for other local, state

and national-level programs that work to address senior hunger and, ones that could be applied

by Second Harvest within local communities. The organization Grantmakers in Aging, along

with National Foundation to End Senior Hunger, work to monitor, research and contribute to

solving the issue of senior food insecurity, and release an annual report on its national growth

and scope. They have collected data on programs across the country that are working with this

issue, and brought three significant ones to light. In Winter Park, Florida the Florida Health

Foundation partnered with AARP and Second Harvest of Central Florida to establish grants for

purchasing food for low income seniors, to distribute through local organizations along with

contact information for local poverty and food resources. In Kansas City, the Jewish Heritage

Fund helped 200 low income seniors to plot community gardens as a reliable and steady source

of food, giving them increased nutrition and physical activity. In upstate New York, the New

York Community Trust started the Healthy Food, Healthy Communities program, which

recruits older adults to help low income seniors establish healthy eating habits. NFESH makes
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the claim that providing resources to seniors in need is most hindered by a lack of funding in the

right places, most of which comes from the government and is distributed based on population

percentage. Since the establishment of the Older Americans Act programs, they are looking to

get policy initiatives rolling that will tie funding to the appropriate risk factors and get it to those

who really need it (Grantmakers, January 2013).

The second issue that we researched was information on assistance to families who are

recently impoverished. This is an important issue for Second Harvest because they feel that there

are many people locally who are not getting they resources they need simply because they dont

know where to go for help. This can be especially true in a place like Mecklenburg County,

where there is lots of turnover in terms of the percentage of people in poverty (outside of the

senior demographic, poverty rates and food insecurity percentage run much closer). Even though

there has been a slight decline in the poverty rate since its max in 2012 (18%), Mecklenburg

County still ranks second worst in the country for families falling into poverty and not being able

to get back out. While the county poverty rate is still beneath the state average, the cost of living

in here is what does most families in; with increasing costs to housing, food and child care, many

families struggle to make ends meet while all working full time (Charlotte, December 2016).

The fact the the county poverty line wage is less than 50% of the living wage

($10.60/hour) can sugarcoat the situation, when in reality it doesnt reflect the increased cost of

living that local wages cant keep up with. Because of this, 35% of households with children in

Mecklenburg County are considered food insecure, another staggering statistic. Mecklenburg

County as a whole though as varying levels of need, which may contribute to the poverty level

being below state average. For instance, in Myers Park less than 1% of people face poverty,
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while in Mint Hill numbers have increased to over 33% since 2010. These discrepancies also

have little correlation with racial demographics; the zip codes of 28208, 28205, 28212 and 28215

have the largest percentage of those in poverty, though their racial demographics differ. Levels

of food insecurity run along similar lines, showing that hunger doesnt care what you look like

(Mecklenburg, 2015).

There is a culmination of local and national programs available to people who have fallen

into poverty or food insecurity in Mecklenburg County, though most people dont know about

them. Federal and national programs exist to help low-income families with many aspects of

poverty. Outside of social security, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit

(CTC) offset payroll taxes for families and lift them from the federal poverty line by 26% of

required net income; SNAP programs supply food stamps and help with food insecurity to

low-income families; Medicaid enacted the Children's Health Insurance Program such that

children are now far less likely to be uninsured; and local short and long-term housing is

available, as well as the ability to begin applying for Pell grants early. These programs create a

national safety net for low-income families, working to keep them out of poverty. Though the

poverty level is officially measured by cash income alone, the Supplemental Poverty Measure

(SPM) takes into account non-cash benefits and tax assistance as income is calculated, drastically

reducing the number of families below the poverty line by as much as 50%, in the same way that

many seniors stay above the poverty line who are in need.

The modern safety net looks to promote working families by not singling out

single-parent homes or families whose incomes have slightly increased. The EITC now offers

increasing tax credits and income assistance as family earnings go up, significantly scaling up
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the incentives to stay in work. This has increased the level of employment among single-parent

homes and thereby reduced welfare payouts in the past two decades. EITC is often claimed for

shorter periods to offset unexpected changes.These low-income programs have low

administrative costs; research findings estimate that 90-99% of funding from the state and

federal levels goes straight to beneficiaries. However, the safety net has still left the poorest of

families with children out to dry. The number of families living below half the poverty line has

increased by 0.6% from 2007, primarily because of lack of affordable child care, child care

subsidies, and the failure of cash-assistance programs. As a whole however, these programs

would be extremely helpful to families in Mecklenburg County and would be important to apply

for early on in times of need (Center, July 2013).

On a more local level, The Charlotte Area fund offers assistance to low-income families

in Mecklenburg County through partnerships with numerous organizations. They offer help in

the areas of paying rent, bills or mortgages; clothing, temporary housing, financial services,

healthcare services in the form of doctor's visits, help with medical bills, prescriptions, referral

services and hospitalizations; legal aid, food insecurity, student loans, work skills and

employment readiness training, utility assistance, rentals, summer cooling assistance,

homelessness prevention, home repair, eviction representation and child care services. These

services are available through multiple organizations like faith groups, food pantries, training

services and housing authorities, and are available to all residence. Some assistance comes

directly from CAF through the Self-sufficiency Project, which uses an individualized case

management and counseling and will provide people with funds for certain expenses, grants,

employment and also educational assistance to those in need of help. In addition, the project
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provides nutrition assistance through education and they also offer low-cost and free nutritious

food to those who have been as assessed as in need of food aid. There are so many resources

and federal dollars that either go unspent or are used in the wrong areas simply because people in

need dont know what resources are available to them, and it is our hope that organizations like

Second Harvest will be able able to apply such research into building a stronger community

outreach and reduce the number of those who face food insecurity (Assistance, n.d.).

Conclusion & Discussion

Ultimately, our partnership showed us the importance of organizations like Second

Harvest and the impact organizations like these have on our local society. Our research was

conducted with the final purpose of providing Second Harvest with information that can assist

them as they grow and help the community on a wider scale. Understanding the trends in hunger

and poverty demographically, especially in senior citizens, may encourage them to pursue a new

approach to fighting hunger amongst these groups. In the end, our goal was to aid Second

Harvest and their efforts with their endeavors as well as laying a framework for future

citizenship groups that partner with them.

We plan on continuing the fundraiser that our group started at the beginning of the

semester; So far we have currently raised $178 which equates to 1,246 pounds of food. We then

plan on transferring the fundraiser over to the next group of students that partners with Second

Harvest. We also created a flyer to raise awareness of Second Harvest, hoping this will help

people learn of their resources so they can take advantage of them. Overall, our group as a whole

learned a lot about the issues facing those around us. Our volunteer experience was eye opening

and it showed us that there are others worse off than us. It was very rewarding to see how
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grateful the individuals are that are receiving help and how cheerful they always are. It has called

all of us to action and we would like to continue to serve and help the community.
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References

Charlotte kids are hungry; you can help. (2016, December 2). Retrieved from
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article118563288.html

Food Insecurity - Seniors. (2016). Retrieved from

https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/2016-senior-report/measure/food_insecurity_sr/
state/NC

Hunger and Poverty in North Carolina. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.foodshuttle.org/hunger-in-nc/

Hunger in North Carolina. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://ncfoodbanks.org/hunger-in-north-carolina/

Hunger in Older Adults. (2017). Retrieved from

http://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/docs/default-source/research/hungerinolderadults-execsu
mmary-feb2017.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Mecklenburg County: Community Pulse. (2015). Retrieved from

http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/CountyManagersOffice/Documents/2015%20Mecklen
burg%20County%20Community%20Pulse%20Report.pdf

Poverty. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/poverty/

Senior Hunger Fact Sheet. (2017, September). Retrieved from

http://www.feedingamerica.org/assets/pdfs/fact-sheets/senior-hunger-fact-sheet.pdf

Grantmakers in Ageing. (2013, January. Ingraham, Margaret). Retrieved from

https://www.giaging.org/issues/senior-hunger/

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2013, July). Sherman, Arloc Retrieved from
https://www.cbpp.org/research/various-supports-for-low-income-families-reduce-poverty-and-ha
ve-long-term-positive-effects

Mecklenburg County Assistance Programs (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/mecklenburg_county_assistance_.html