Katina Parker
Photo by Erin Bell
Filmmaker and Feed Durham co-founder Katina Parker is busy! She has been feeding Durm’s most vulnerable since the pandemic and the demand is only growing. We caught up with her Sunday at Central Park over a bowl of delicious soup:
What are you up to here in Central Park today?
This is Feed Durham’s 4th Thanksgiving Grocery Giveaway. We spend a weekend packing groceries for hundreds of local households. And our last stop is POP SWAP, where we give away all available produce and groceries to anyone in need. This year we have an incredible variety. Organic produce is donated by Happy Dirt. Hydroponically-grown lettuces donated from Moonshot Farms. We have produce donated from Maple Spring Farms and Common Ground Eco Village. We have pesto donated from FARM Church. We have fresh herbs harvested from my garden. We give away poultry donated from Red Start Foods. We have beef and ham donated from Easihorse Farms. Our nut-butter is donated by Big Spoon Roasters. Chips and crackers are donated by Bulldega. Our bread is from 9th Street Bakery. We also offer soup: vegan, turkey and lamb.
Thanksgiving is around the corner, what’s on your mind?
Family. Thanksgiving is a time for family. It’s also a time for acknowledging loss and longing if you’ve lost a family member or are disconnected from family. So yeah, family. Family and food. It’s time for connection and disconnection. And even hurt, if you have memories of holidays without food.
You have been feeding Durham since 2020, what is the biggest reward and what is the biggest challenge?
The biggest reward is feeding so many good people. There is too much green space in Durham for anyone to go hungry. We just need to allocate our resources a bit more efficiently to ensure no one falls through the gaps. Our generous community has so many people who want to contribute. At Feed Durham we seek to be a hub for connecting different communities in order to make Durham a better place. I always say you are as safe as your least hungry neighbor.
We had an issue recently. Mountaire Farms declined to donate because our values don’t align, meaning we have a lot of LGBTQ+ people who volunteer with us. Many of us are queer and they decided they don’t want our hands to touch their food, even though we feed a largely Christian community.
If you could have a lifetime supply of anything, what would it be?
Water and love. We cannot live without either.
Your idea of perfect happiness?
Happiness would be everyone having their core needs met. This would allow people to focus on whatever they consider meaningful, or their life’s purpose. Happiness is making the planet better for future generations.
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