Mecklenburg County nonprofit says immigration fears are deterring Latino community from seeking food donations

Yahoo

24-05-2025

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A local organization that fights hunger says they're fighting fears among the Latino community.
Nourish Up says they're seeing fewer families come in because of immigration concerns.
Each carload for home deliveries holds a week's worth of groceries for each client.
'If somebody is hungry, we're going to feed that person,' said Tina Postel, Nourish Up CEO.
'A lot of times they'll say I have no food in my house, there's nothing in my refrigerator,' said John Patrick, a volunteer.
But not everyone is showing up to get food.
'It's definitely something that keeps me up at night,' said Postel.
Postel says there's one group in particular that's not coming into the dozens of pantries the organization runs in Mecklenburg County.
'If you are too afraid to go to school or go to your job, you also don't want to be visiting a grocery store,' said Postel.
She says they've seen a drop of three percent in the number of Latino families getting food at Nourish Up so far this year compared with last.
'That tells me there's a lot of fear among the Latino community,' said Postel.
Nourish Up had a plan to help people who were afraid to come and get food, so they set the wheels in motion to do just that, but there's an issue.
'We can leave groceries for you in a contactless delivery at your doorstep,' said Postel.
But she says they don't have enough volunteers to get the food out for home deliveries.
'Sometimes they're waiting days longer than they would need to if we had more volunteers,' said Postel.
John Patrick has been helping for years.
'I'm not blessing anyone the way I see it. I'm the one being blessed,' said Patrick.
He hopes others will see the need and step up to feed as many as they can.
'Citizenship is not a question that we ask. We believe that food is a basic human right here at Nourish Up,' said Postel.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.