Spotlight on a Local: Sara Haggar, Executive Director, Holly Springs Food Cupboard

Cupboard has provided food assistance to hundreds of families in Holly Springs every week for 15 years.

About the writer: Dae Reed is a sophomore at NC State studying journalism. He has lived in Holly Springs for 8 years and loves theater, photography, and writing. Dae is the first summer intern at Holly Springs Update.

Holly Springs, NC, Jun. 16, 2025 —The Holly Springs Food Cupboard serves about 480 families every month. Their mission is to provide supplemental food assistance to those in need, serving primarily the Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina areas.

The cupboard recently celebrated its 15th anniversary serving its community.

Sara Haggar is the Executive Director of the cupboard, where she manages their overall functioning and public image. She writes grant applications, meets with community sponsors, and ensures everyone has the support they need to fulfill their responsibilities.

Haggar started at the cupboard after retiring from a 37-year career at IBM. During her career, she earned a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Duke University, where her final project focused on the issue of food insecurity.

“I knew I wanted to work in food insecurity, and so I started volunteering here. And then it was really some good luck or good timing,” Haggar said.

Living in Holly Springs for almost 30 years, she knew she wanted to work at the cupboard. A few months after she joined, there were openings on the board. She took the assistant treasurer role for a year and a half, when Pat Haggard, the previous executive director, started grooming her successor.

Pat Haggard was in the role for 14 years. She served the cupboard through a twenty-fold increase in the number of clients served, according to their website. Haggar called those some “big shoes to fill.”

Sara Haggar has been in the role of executive director since October 2024, and though it has been a learning process, she has enjoyed it.

Haggar said that when she was only a donor to the cupboard, she wasn’t under the impression that there were food-insecure people in Holly Springs. The numbers collected by the cupboard tell a different story. She cited many reasons why someone might need their resources beyond what one might typically assume.

“There is no picture of what a food-insecure person looks like. They come from all walks of life,” she said.

HOW IT HAPPENS

The cupboard offers shopping appointments on Mondays and food distributions on Thursdays, as well as deliveries to clients who are unable to access the cupboard due to a lack of transportation or health issues. Additionally, clients can get assistance with referrals to benefits programs, as well as other information about local human services organizations.

At shopping appointments, approximately 20 clients per week receive the same food, but it is self-selected, allowing those with health issues or intolerances to choose exactly what they need.

Approximately 100 people visit the drive-through distribution on Thursdays, where they receive a bag or box of food, depending on the size of their household, which includes non-perishables. Things like milk, eggs, and meat are also distributed.

The first step in the process is identifying who will receive the food. Clients are searched in the cupboard’s database, which lists the number of people in the family. If clients are new, they are entered into a database that is used solely for collecting general demographic information and is not distributed to any external parties. It is also used to track the frequency of clients' visits, as the food cupboard can only afford to serve households once every four weeks.

The clients are then given a bag or box, depending on the number of people it’s meant to feed, and specialty items for students to take to school. The items vary week to week, but generally include soup, beans, pasta, rice, and other non-perishables, along with whatever refrigerated items the cupboard has to hand out. Depending on the season, clients can also leave with 15 or 16 pounds of produce.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

The cupboard is a partner agency with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. The partnership provides the cupboard with weekly access to bulk items, such as peanut butter and beans, at reduced prices, and also offers a selection of free items. They also get reduced-priced items from the food bank, which they often use for bulk items like peanut butter and beans, as well as free items.

“It really just depends on what they have. We got some gorgeous blackberries a couple of weeks ago, and sometimes we get boxes of Oreos,” Haggar said.

They also gather a considerable amount of goods from food recovery programs. In these scenarios, stores that would otherwise discard safe food can provide it to the cupboard. For example, meat that must be used within a day can be frozen and distributed safely. They have many local partners, including Lowe’s Foods, Olive Garden, Chipotle, and two Food Lions.

The cupboard is also reliant on food drives for most of its non-perishables, and anything that isn’t donated must be purchased with grant money or monetary donations.

A huge contributor to their collection of produce is the robust garden on the cupboards' property. Jerry DeWitt is the garden director, and he and his team have created a beautiful and impressive array of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Last year, they grew and harvested 2,100 pounds of organically grown produce.

The cupboard is also a Gold Level Healthy Pantry in partnership with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, promoting and focusing on healthy choices for their clients. Haggar said their main way to express that is through a dedicated portion of their budget going towards produce.

“Obviously some food that's donated is better for people than others. We want to invest in the produce because we want to give [clients] the opportunity to make healthy choices,” Haggar said.

VOLUNTEERING

There are many different roles to play at the organization. To collect, organize, store, and distribute such a large amount of food takes a lot of hands. Volunteers are working on logistics of shelving, sorting, weighing, and cleaning. Distribution volunteers assist with packing bags of produce for distribution.

“We are an all volunteer organization,” Haggar told me, “and that is unusual in an organization that's been around this long, but we like it that way.”

There are folks who have been a part of the cupboard for all 15 years, like distribution director Wanda Holloway, but they also train new volunteers to integrate them into the existing system.

“Right now, we have a wealth of volunteers. More people want to volunteer with us than we have slots to take them,” Haggar said.

When new volunteers want to sign up, they can fill out a form on their website to indicate their areas of interest. When an opening becomes available, they will be contacted and undergo a brief training session before being able to sign up for shifts.

“People love being here because you are with people who are like-minded. They just want to serve. That is the uniting factor,” Haggar said. “We have people with different political views, with different backgrounds and things like that, but when we're here, it's a real team effort.”

Another excellent opportunity to volunteer is in the garden on Saturday mornings. Groups like Scout troops and service clubs often reserve spots for two weeks out of the month, but they are otherwise open to anyone who wants to contribute, whether it be through planting, weeding, or harvesting.

With limited opportunities for volunteering inside the cupboard, Haggar said the garden is also a great way to engage with the community. It can accommodate a significantly larger number of volunteers than its relatively small interior, and there is always work to be done.

“They do a fantastic job," Haggar said. “They bring a lot of people into the cupboard that we wouldn't be able to get in otherwise.”

THE FUTURE

The cupboard continues to require donations of food, and more food. Serving 120 families a week, they are constantly restocking and shopping.

Haggar said that food drives in particular are low in the summer, which has meant more spending out of the cupboard's pocket. This summer, more than ever, they have had a low count of donations.

“We're not quite sure what's contributing to that, but we're concerned,” Haggar said. “There's a lot going on in politics, and I don't want to get into that, except to say that we are concerned that we may be having more and more clients coming our direction. And if that's the case, we're going to have challenges.”

Ever expanding, the cupboard was recently able to purchase the land on both sides of the property. The effort was a long time coming, led by President Bruce Meyer, but they finally own the land that has long been used for parking, as of March 2025.

Along with the land purchase, the cupboard has intentions to expand its physical footprint. It has already been expanded three times in the 15 years since it opened.

“As you can see, we are bursting at the seams,” Haggar told me. “We need more space to operate. We need more storage space. We need more cold storage space.”

The expansion plans are still in their early stages, but the growth of the cupboard necessitates them. Haggar also mentioned that the plans to widen Holly Springs Road will require the acquisition of a significant portion of land at the front of their property, necessitating additional adjustments.

Overall, the cupboard is increasingly essential to the citizens of Holly Springs who rely upon it. Those who can support and donate are a large part of its long-term success, alongside the large volunteer force.

“The attitude we've gotten from the community is certainly very generous,” Haggar said. “We are delighted with the support we get from the businesses, the neighborhoods, the churches, and the individuals.”

You can find more information about the Holly Springs Food Cupboard and how to contribute by visiting their website at

https://hsfoodcupboard.org/

or following it on Instagram and Facebook.