Holiday Donation Drive for Dollars
Please consider making a dollar donation to Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry this holiday season.
The money we receive this time of year is used to buy perishable items such as milk, eggs, bread, fresh vegetables and fruit throughout the year for the more than 1,500 food-insecure families that we feed each month.
Click on the DONATE button here to make a secure online payment or write a check payable to Tri-Area Ministry and mail it to:
Tri-Area Ministry
PO Box 1394
Wake Forest, NC 27588-1394
Thank you for your donation of dollars during our holiday fundraising drive.
Inspiring Stories of Community Impact
This holiday season, we’re sharing stories about local volunteers who give their time to families facing food insecurity in our community.
Sisters Extend a Helping Hand: Delivering Nourishment to Neighbors in Need
On three Wednesdays each month, Rose Jackson, accompanied by her sister Joyce Tate, embark on a touching mission, collecting essential food supplies from Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry (TAMFP) and delivering sustenance to 11 families across Wake Forest, Youngsville, and Franklinton facing food insecurity.
Devoting 8-10 hours monthly to this volunteer endeavor, the sisters radiate compassion as they reach diverse households, including those with four to six children, single mothers caring for two to four kids, and elderly individuals living alone.
Rose loads her SUV with packed boxes of food, ensuring no one is left behind. She shares the poignant story of an elderly retired veteran who no longer has a car and couldn’t pick up his food.
Although TAMFP doesn’t provide delivery services, the organization warmly collaborates with individuals like Rose and Joyce, serving as a lifeline to neighbors in need.
Their volunteer journey began in 2020 when they supported a Youngsville church affected by the pandemic, discovering TAMFP while procuring food from local grocery stores during the Covid crisis. Faced with closed food pantries, Rose and Joyce bridged the gap, ensuring those relying on the church for sustenance wouldn’t go hungry.
On three Wednesdays each month, Rose Jackson, accompanied by her sister Joyce Tate, embark on a touching mission, collecting essential food supplies from Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry (TAMFP) and delivering sustenance to 11 families across Wake Forest, Youngsville, and Franklinton facing food insecurity.
Devoting 8-10 hours monthly to this volunteer endeavor, the sisters radiate compassion as they reach diverse households, including those with four to six children, single mothers caring for two to four kids, and elderly individuals living alone.
Rose loads her SUV with packed boxes of food, ensuring no one is left behind. She shares the poignant story of an elderly retired veteran who no longer has a car and couldn’t pick up his food.
Although TAMFP doesn’t provide delivery services, the organization warmly collaborates with individuals like Rose and Joyce, serving as a lifeline to neighbors in need.
Their volunteer journey began in 2020 when they supported a Youngsville church affected by the pandemic, discovering TAMFP while procuring food from local grocery stores during the Covid crisis. Faced with closed food pantries, Rose and Joyce bridged the gap, ensuring those relying on the church for sustenance wouldn’t go hungry.
Farmer Donates Thousands of Pounds of Fresh Leafy Vegetables
Over the past five years, Farmer Robert Evans has generously contributed 35,000 pounds of fresh leafy vegetables (collards, kale and turnip greens), valued at $31,000 wholesale, to the Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry.
This donation ensures that the food-insecure members of our community receive nourishing produce when they collect their monthly grocery bags.
Farming part-time on his family’s Chowan County land near Edenton, North Carolina, located 130 miles east of his residence in Wake Forest, Robert dedicates his time and effort cultivating collards and other greens exclusively for the food pantry.
RnM Farm was established in 1959 by Robert’s parents, Robert Sr. and Mary. Initially, it was a poorly drained, 200-acre rundown farm. After years of improvements, the farm evolved to successfully grow corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, and raise dairy and beef cattle and hogs.
The family also grew 25 acres of fresh market produce (cantaloups, watermelon, beans, sweet corn, potatoes and squash) always reserving about 0.25 acres each year for growing vegetables for both personal use and community distribution.
Following his father’s passing in 2019, Robert continues to farm this designated plot, while the remaining land is leased for crop cultivation.
Wake Forest resident and part-time farmer Robert Evans delivers fresh collards to Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry.
Robert’s donation includes not only collard greens but also cabbage, beets, turnips, squash, cucumbers and okra. His choice of collards is strategic due to their extended field life, allowing harvesting from early November to the following spring. When delivered, these greens maintain their quality for two weeks in the food pantry cooler, remaining fresh and suitable for consumption.
Aware of the Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry’s need for fresh produce through the Plant a Row for the Hungry program, Robert discovered this initiative in his church bulletin. The national program encourages gardeners to cultivate surplus produce for donation to local food pantries.
Retired and holding the title of Professor Emeritus after a 40-year career as a North Carolina State University professor and Biological and Agricultural Engineering department head, Dr. Evans is internationally recognized for his work in drainage, drainage water management, stream and wetland restoration, riparian buffers, and nonpoint source pollution control.
Reflecting on his career, he notes, “I had focused all my energy on my work, so I didn’t do a lot of community service during my career. This now gives me the opportunity to give back.”
With one pound of produce supplementing four meals, Robert’s contributions have provided over 140,000 meals to food-insecure residents of Wake Forest, Rolesville, and Youngsville since 2018. He’s not finished yet and remains committed to growing and giving more in the future.
