Now Serving connects restaurants, caterers, and commercial kitchens with community agencies to provide healthy meals to neighbors in need.
Meals Served
Meal Makers
Locally-owned and operated, our restaurant and catering partners bring expertise to creating community meals.
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Community Agencies
Already executing on the front lines, community organizations are the vital distribution link.
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Recipients
Recipients always come first. We provide nutritious, culturally conscious, and ready-to-eat meals without qualification.
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The Problem
The pandemic has effected countless buisnesses, families and communities. We aim to do our part to help, beginning with our own communities.
An alarming 14% of North Carolina residents do not know where their next meal will come from each day. Novel ways to address hunger are needed.
Meanwhile, restaurant sales across the country were down $240 billion from expected levels in 2020 and 85% of restaurant operators reported smaller margins than before the pandemic. Beloved businesses are disappearing, taking jobs and, in many cases, a defining piece of their community with them.
A Fresh Approach
With our resources, restaurants integrate community meals into their operations and connect with trusted partners to enable efficient distribution.
Regular income from Now Serving meals gives restaurants flexibility with overhead costs
Community Agencies determine the amount and types of food they need for their recipients.
Recipients have an alternative to shelf-stable, traditional food bank offerings with fresh, culturally-sensitive meals.
A Fresh Approach
With our resources, restaurants integrate community meals into their operations and connect with trusted partners to enable efficient distribution.
Regular income from Now Serving meals gives restaurants flexibility with overhead costs
Community-Based Organizations determine the amount and types of food they need for their recipients.
Recipients have an alternative to shelf-stable, traditional food bank offerings with fresh, culturally sensitive meals.
Meet Our Partners
Mae Lynn
New Bethel Food Pantry, Community AGENCY
Mae Lynn began volunteering at New Bethel Food Pantry in 2014, one year after joining the church. She and a team of 20 volunteers serve Southeast Raleigh, distributing food boxes to 90-100 families on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month. In the past two years, with demand spiking, New Bethel expanded to add meals for out-of-school kids and Saturday deliveries. While their regular pantry is in partnership with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC, Mae worked with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to hand out casseroles prepared by Chef Sunny Gerhart during COVID.
Now Serving restarted this prepared meal service in the spring of 2022 with a focus on creating meals her recipients want. They have regularly expressed missing the quality and ease the prepared dishes provide, saving them time and freeing up money for other necessities.
We are thankful to support Mae and New Bethel Food Pantry.
Mae Lynn, New Bethel Food Pantry
Collaborative. Nourishing. Dynamic.
Coleen Speaks, PoshNosh & Hummingbird
Coleen Speaks
POSHNOSH, CATERING Partner
Coleen Speaks, the prolific owner of Hummingbird, PoshNosh Catering, and Whitaker & Atlantic, has supplied Raleigh with memorable meals and experiences for more than 15 years.
Within each concept, Speaks emphasizes hospitality, the importance of community, and time shared together. “We’ve always attracted an eclectic crowd, with a little something for a lot of different people,” she explained. “Partnering with Now Serving gives deeper meaning to our connection with the community.”
Since Now Serving’s inception, Coleen has utilized the PoshNosh Catering kitchen to create large orders of blanched, delicious dishes for Meals on Wheels. For their part, Meals on Wheels now distributes two “weekend supplements” with their regular Friday lunch as a bridge for recipients to the following week.
Now Serving made the connection between Coleen and Meals on Wheels to identify specific order amounts, menu options, delivery logistics, and ongoing continuity. We’re thrilled to work with her.
Our vision is a sustainable support system to uplift residents across North Carolina and the South.