Nearly two years ago, in fall of 2020, amid a global pandemic, the North Carolina Community Action Association (NCCAA) launched an innovative pilot program. The programming broadly focused on community-level, “two-gen” impact, and was anchored in five domains of the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): food security, education, transportation, housing and toxic stress mitigation.
Specifically, in the food security domain, NCCAA convened a regional think tank, in partnership with its network agency, Action Pathways. Located in Fayetteville, NC, Action Pathways was an essential partner, with a regional food bank as one of its core programs.

 

This toolkit is the culmination of nearly two years of multidisciplinary, community-based efforts, resulting in the piloting of on-site school pantries, embedded in campus settings. When the first school pantry opened in 2021 at Clinton High School (Sampson County, NC), it was the first of its kind east of I-95 in the state. Subsequently, six more pantries have opened, with at least five additional sites in progress and planned to open in the next 12 months across eastern and southeastern North Carolina.

 

We hope the resources, guidelines and worksheets in this toolkit will prove to be helpful, as you address food insecurity among students and their families in your communities. The North Carolina Community Action Association team is also available to provide consulting services, with training and technical assistance, upon request.

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Scroll through the toolkit in the PDF viewer below, or download the PDF to your computer for full access to all links