Greensboro restaurants team up for hunger relief fundraiser May 6

Greensboro diners can support hunger relief on Wednesday, May 6, simply by eating out at one of nearly 50 participating restaurants, where a portion of sales will be donated to Greensboro Urban Ministry’s Potter’s House Community Kitchen. Each meal will help turn restaurant dollars into groceries and prepared food for the ministry’s lunch program, its food pantry, and the meals it serves for people staying at Weaver House Shelter.

Serving Greensboro Together is built to do two things at once: keep local restaurant dollars moving and feed Guilford County neighbors facing food insecurity. Greensboro Urban Ministry says the annual dining fundraiser is held the first Wednesday in May, with restaurants agreeing to donate part of their total sales from the day to support the ministry’s hunger-relief work. The proceeds are used to purchase food for Potter’s House, where lunch is served every day, including holidays, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 1002 S. Eugene Street in Greensboro.

Potter’s House is already operating at heavy volume. In March alone, the community kitchen served more than 7,700 lunches, 4,100 breakfasts and 2,000 dinners, underscoring the scale of need that the fundraiser is meant to meet. Greensboro Urban Ministry says everyone is welcome at Potter’s House without question or qualification, and the kitchen also helps supply meals for Weaver House Shelter, which has provided emergency shelter for people without permanent residence for more than 35 years.

Tyra Clymer, director of spiritual care and connections at Greensboro Urban Ministry, said restaurants are still working through the economic strain of recent years and that their participation represents a major sacrifice. Even so, the fundraiser asks participating businesses to convert a regular sales day into direct support for neighbors who need food, shelter and other help.

The need is especially visible in Guilford County. Greensboro Urban Ministry says its Food Pantry has served the county for more than 30 years and that nearly 90,000 people locally are food insecure. Feeding America’s 2023 estimate puts Guilford County’s food-insecure population at 82,510, or 15.2% of residents, with a child food insecurity rate of 22.5% and an annual food budget shortfall of $57.7 million. Those numbers show why even a single day of restaurant participation can matter across Greensboro and the wider county.

Greensboro Urban Ministry says it has served the community since 1967, and Serving Greensboro Together is one more way the city’s dining room can also become a lifeline. For families stretching budgets in neighborhoods across Guilford County, the impact of a lunch, dinner or donation on May 6 will be immediate: more food purchased, more meals served and more support for the people already turning to Greensboro Urban Ministry for help.