By the time the busy fall season arrived, and community food needs were at their highest, every shelf inside the Fuquay-Varina Food Pantry was full. “People in the community have been incredibly supportive,” says Peggy Day, co-director of the Pantry. “They kept bringing in food because they didn’t want anyone to struggle.” Donations poured in so abundantly that the Pantry overflowed its storage space, forcing organizers to rent temporary storage pods to hold the excess food. “Last fall we more than filled up,” Peggy recalls.
At the same time, an influx of residents eager to volunteer revealed another challenge: There simply was not enough room inside the facility to accommodate them. “We would love to invite more people to volunteer,” Peggy said, “but we simply don’t have the room. Even a few additional volunteers can make the already-crowded work areas difficult to navigate.”
While the response was overwhelming at times, those donations became even more important as government food assistance declined sharply. According to Peggy, the Pantry’s monthly allotments from the Food Bank dropped by nearly 80% under federal reductions and went from 10 pallets to two. To continue providing families with a full week’s worth of groceries, the Pantry has had to rely even more heavily on community donations.
The growing demand has highlighted the limitations of the current building and made one thing clear — the Fuquay-Varina Food Pantry has outgrown its space. Plans are now underway for a new facility, and I sat down with Peggy to learn more about the vision for the Pantry’s future.
Peggy relates: “About two years ago, a gentleman in the community left 40% of his estate, when he passed, to the Food Pantry to secure its future. At that time, the Food Pantry had enough funds to make an offer on the nearly one-acre parking lot property owned by K.B. Johnson Oil and Gas. The offer was accepted, and the Pantry purchased the property with the long-term goal of eventually building a new facility there. Later, Pantry leaders considered purchasing their current building, but the asking price did not align with their financial resources.”
That uncertainty helped solidify the decision to move forward with plans for a new building. “We realized that if the current building were sold to someone else, we might not have a home,” Peggy explained. “So, we felt like now is the time to move forward.”
Pantry leaders have been working with architects and are now getting to the point of looking at what design they are interested in. The current building has 1,900 square feet; the new building will be about 4,500 to 5,000 square feet — more than doubling the space. This will allow the Food Bank to deliver food to the Food Pantry versus Pantry personnel renting a truck to go pick it up.
The expanded space will allow the Pantry to welcome more volunteers, serve more families, and provide even greater amounts of food to those in need. “As prices continue to rise, more and more people are coming for help,” Peggy explains. “Gas prices and food prices affect so much.”
Plans for the new facility include increasing the space in nearly every area of the Pantry. The produce section, for example, will be expanded and will include refrigeration at the front of the Pantry, eliminating the need to constantly transfer food back and forth from refrigerators currently located in the rear of the building. The new facility would also ideally include a walk-in refrigerator and a walk-in freezer for meats, replacing the numerous stand-alone freezers currently tucked into every available corner of the Pantry.
The bakery and deli sections will double in size. And the personal hygiene area will likewise be enlarged, allowing more than one client to be served at a time. Office space will be expanded to comfortably accommodate four staff members, compared to the current office, which can hold only two or three people.
The Pantry continues to operate its drive-through distribution system, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The process proved convenient, and it has remained in place. Clients check in from their vehicles while volunteers move wagons through the Pantry, stopping at each station where food is packed into bags and boxes before being delivered directly to the car.
With more space, volunteers will be able to get food out the door a lot more easily. The food distribution area will be separated from the donation drop-off area, creating a more efficient flow for both volunteers and clients. The new building will also provide larger storage areas for government-supplied food as well as a permanent space for the supplemental food the Pantry distributes to families each week.
The increase in space could also create opportunities for programs beyond food distribution, such as nutrition and cooking classes. In addition, the Pantry currently helps connect donated furniture with families in need, though those items must now be stored in an off-site storage unit. A new building could provide space to store furniture donations on-site, allowing the Pantry to expand that assistance as well.
What is the timeline for this project? The construction extends all the way back into the woods behind the current building, so there will be land clearing, connecting to services, electricity, and sewer. Peggy explains, “It takes about one year to get all the permitting accomplished. So, once we decide on the design, we’ll meet with the town and hopefully work through that process so that we can begin the permitting. And then, depending on how we build, whether we do a stick build or a prefab, it could take anywhere from nine months to one year. Within two years, we hope to be in something.”
Fundraising for the new facility began in September 2025 and is ongoing; the goal being to raise $1 million. Progress toward this goal is symbolized by a cross displayed outside the building. A brick is added to the cross for every $27,000 donated. The Pantry surpassed the halfway mark in June due to many group and individual efforts. Peggy says, “We are encouraged by the generosity of this community and the inquiries about our progress. Being able to volunteer at, and be one of the recipients of, the Run the Quay event in June allowed us to support the community while the community supports us.”
On September 19, the Fuquay-Varina Jeep Club is hosting a fundraising event at The Mason Jar Lager Company. For more information on all fundraising events, visit the Food Pantry website at fvfoodpantry.com. The site includes options to donate either to the Pantry’s general operating fund via PayPal or specifically to the building fund through Zeffy, keeping those donations fee-free.
Individuals, neighborhoods, businesses, and community organizations can all play a role in supporting the project. Groups are encouraged to host fundraisers of their own, while businesses can participate through employee matching gift programs. In those programs, companies match donations made by employees, and Peggy hopes more businesses will consider including the Pantry’s building fund as one of their charitable giving options.
Peggy has one last message she would like to share with the community about the importance of this project: “The current poverty rate is 8% here in Fuquay-Varina, and our town is projected to double in size. We don’t expect that poverty rate to drop just because we doubled in size. If it stays the same, we will have a lot more people to serve, and we want to ensure that we can meet the needs of anybody in Fuquay-Varina and the surrounding areas. Nobody should go hungry. We live in the United States of America. Nobody should ever be hungry.” She adds, “One thing that we truly believe is, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain’ (Psalm 127). This is God’s pantry, and He’s the one directing us to move forward. It’s not us — it’s Him.”
The Pantry is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization recognized as a 501(c)(3) by the Internal Revenue Service and is able to accept charitable donations, including Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) from IRAs and gifts of appreciated stock.
