Robinhood’s Kitchen donating meals to CORA, helping eliminate food waste

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PITTSBORO — As COVID-19 continues to limit the number of customers dining out, many restaurants are buying less food produce than is typical — particularly produce that is completely edible, but less likely to sell in a market due to minor damages or an unappealing appearance.

In Chatham County, Danielle McComas noticed this particularly among farmers, who, despite making donations to local food pantries, were still ending up with a lot of wasted produce.

She decided to do something about it. That’s when the idea for Robinhood’s Kitchen was born.

“The work of our kitchen is so important because food is medicine, and it should be delicious,” McComas said.

The kitchen, housed in Angelina’s Kitchen in Pittsboro, works with local farmers to create meals out of donated produce, to be delivered to Chatham Outreach Alliance (CORA) each Monday. So far, the Robinhood Kitchen’s team — consisting of McComas, Angelina’s Kitchen owner Angelina Kay, Moya Hallstein and Sarah Sligh — has completed two weeks of food donations, making 100 quarts of soup, 38 salads and 20 quiches.

“This is their brainchild,” Kay said of McComas and Hallstein, who she affectionately labeled as the group’s “master mastermind” and “energizer bunny.” (She named herself the team’s “bossy girl and kitchen provider” and deemed Sligh, who also works at Angelina’s Kitchen, the “kitchen queen.”)

“I got sucked in,” Kay said, laughing. “But I can never say no to CORA.”

Currently, the group is working to file for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status so they can formally accept monetary donations and hopefully become an official nonprofit one day. For now, Kay said donations can be made in the form of cash or check to Angelina’s Kitchen.

In Chatham County, one in nine people are struggling with food insecurity, as reported by North Carolina Health News in 2019, which is slightly less than the statewide average of one in seven. Still, with more than 68,000 residents, that’s 7,480 people.

“There’s huge food insecurity in Chatham,” Hallstein said. She helped brainstorm the idea for Robinhood’s Kitchen with McComas, a CORA volunteer, after also noticing how much edible (but “not the prettiest”) food was being thrown out when it wasn’t sold. So after running the idea by CORA and learning they only needed a commercial kitchen in order to donate homemade food, they decided to make soup.

“Nobody should be hungry — it makes me want to cry when I think about children coming home from school or having a refrigerator that’s not well stocked,” Hallstein said. “So it seems like a natural thing to do. We just thought, well, there’s all this surplus produce, and there’s a need, and we can make soup.”

Soon after, the pair reached out to Kay, who was more than willing to offer up her kitchen for the group’s efforts, Hallstein said. McComas said Kay and Sligh have been so generous with their time and the kitchen space. Ultimately, the group’s “soup shenanigans,” as Kay calls them, are about food equity — not just giving people leftovers, but healthy, nutritious food.

“Access to healthy foods is one of the first lines of defense for public health,” said McComas, who works as a nurse and said she sees many clients without access to healthy foods. “Making these things accessible to this community is essential to changing how our health care system interacts with the public and allows people to progress as individuals and creates solidarity.”

Volunteer opportunities to help with the cooking are currently limited due to limiting the number of people in the kitchen to maintain social distancing. Still, Kay said the group is always looking for food donations (particularly olive oil, rice, noodles and spices) and volunteer shoppers for the group.

“I know that we’re on a high right now, because it just started and people are really offering volunteer hours or offering money or offering food,” Kay said. “I know that January and February will be more challenging — because of many different reasons, but we are hoping to do this indefinitely.”

Eventually, the group is hoping to add another certified kitchen where they can prepare food, in order to include more volunteers and spread the weight from Angelina’s Kitchen. The group’s organizers said they’re super appreciative to the farmers who’ve helped make their food donations a reality — particularly Evan Diamond from Chatham Marketplace, Sue and Ken Mashburn of The Plant Factory, Ben Shields and Patricia Parker from In Good Heart Farm and Meredith Leight from Granite Springs Farm.

“I mean, all of our farmers are willing to pony up,” Kay said. “So we have the resources needed to make possibly wasted food get into the stomach’s of these families.”

Hallstein said she’s been blown away by the volume of donated produce Robinhood’s Kitchen has received and that it was really rewarding to hear from CORA that all the food they brought “went out the door” to families. For now, without a kitchen of their own, the women currently spend a big chunk of Sunday and Monday collecting food donations and then cooking them to drop off by Monday evening. It is a lot of work, but Hallstein said the level of community support — and the people receiving the food — make all the effort worth it.

“Like Robin Hood, you know, we’re redistributing and creating food,” Hallstein said of the kitchen. “Of course, Robinhood’s has permission — we’re not like stealing from the rich to feed the poor but we’re definitely redistributing.”

For more information on how to donate or volunteer, you can email robinhoodskitchen@gmail.com.

Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.