After more than a year in operations a popular local food hub is closing. Carrboro United, a program created to protect and stimulate the Carrboro economy during the pandemic, served thousands. Team members announced the last day of operation is Saturday.

For 15 months, more than 50 businesses participated in Carrboro United. Three days a week residents could pick up family style meals to support local businesses when many had to shut their doors for the pandemic.

Kevin Callaghan is a co-founder of Carrboro United and owner of Acme Food & Beverage. Each vendor who started with Carrboro United in March 2020 is still in business – something Callaghan said was a main goal of the program.

“It was our response to the pandemic – a way for businesses who weren’t allowed to have people in them to make a living,” Callaghan said. “That was really the focus of what we were all about.”

With most vendors now back to regular service, Callaghan said maintaining Carrboro United would have been lots of extra work for businesses to balance.

“It was really sort of a remarkable serendipity that allowed for all these people and all these businesses to come together and really form this united front,” Callaghan said.

Although the food hub will no longer serve residents three days a week, Callaghan said Carrboro United is exploring options for special occasions. This could include days like Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Callaghan said one of the rewarding experiences running Carrboro United was working with other restaurants who were also closed due to public health guidelines.

“We all knew what we were all going through,” Callaghan said. “It wasn’t as if anyone was in another boat as another person. We were all struggling to make something happen.”

When Carrboro United was founded, Callaghan was not sure how long it would last. He said he thought it could maybe extend a few months to June or July. It did far more than that, surpassing $1 million in sales in October and celebrating its anniversary in March.

“It just kept going and was just sort of this remarkable gift because as the pandemic went on and on, Carrboro United remained strong and our guests remained confident and hopeful and kept reminding us that it was going to be worth it,” Callaghan said.

Meals being picked up Saturday afternoon from Carrboro United will need to be ordered by Friday. Team members said in a letter any gift cards not used before Saturday will be automatically transferred to an Acme Food & Beverage gift card for future redemption.

 

Photo via The Splinter Group.

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