AmeriCorps VISTA | Healthy Futures

North Carolina Campus Compact nominates Sally Parlier for a 2013 Service Impact Award. Sally is serving her second year as the NC Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA at Durham Technical Community College. Her work supports a partnership between Durham Tech and the Briggs Avenue Community Garden which has had a substantial impact on the culture of service at Durham Tech. For Sally, promoting community engagement is “essential to fulfilling the civic mission of the community college.”

The relationship between Durham Tech and the Briggs Avenue Community Garden has flourished since Sally became a VISTA. Since 2011, Sally has recruited 111 volunteers to perform 238 hours of service with the garden. A recent grant required the garden to donate a certain percentage of its harvest to area hunger relief programs. Sally saw an opportunity to both fulfill this requirement and support Durham Tech students living in poverty. She worked with the community garden to dedicate a plot to Durham Tech students which they now use to grow and harvest produce for their peers. Through the distribution program, called Harvest Tuesday, more than 200 pounds of produce has been given to low-income students.

Michelle Wallace, Consumer Horticulture Agent with the NC Cooperative Extension – Durham Office, praises Sally’s work. She calls Sally “wonderful to work with” and feels that “her involvement has been a true asset to the garden and really made a difference in the overall success of the program.” She continues, “Sally’s involvement in our project has had a direct impact of increasing food security for low-income individuals in our community.”

Despite the success of Harvest Tuesdays, Sally recognized her program could only address part of the great demand for fresh produce. In an effort to meet the demand Sally built a relationship with the Community Nutrition Partnership (CNP) whose mission is to “grow healthier communities through access to healthy, local, affordable foods.” CNP’s Veggie Van, a service which brings low-cost produce to communities with limited access to fresh food, now brings weekly boxes of produce to Durham Tech’s campus.

Finally, on January 22, 2013, after months of planning, Sally opened the Durham Tech Campus Harvest (DTCH) Food Pantry. Since opening, it has served 228 unique clients with a total of 1,352 visits to the pantry closet and snack shelf. Durham Tech students have helped run the pantry as well. Sally recruited eighteen volunteers who have worked 79 hours in the pantry. She’s also been instrumental in securing the donation of approximately 4,291 pounds of food, and her work building partnerships with local organizations has ensured DTCH’s continued support by the community.

Sally truly exemplifies the spirit of AmeriCorps and VISTA. Her hard work and dedication has not gone unrecognized by Durham Tech. Sally has been offered the newly-created “Volunteer Services Coordinator” position and will join the school as a staff member in August at the completion of her VISTA service.