SUNDAY Reflection: Warmth, Memory, and the Cold Reality Next Door

It’s a Sunday afternoon here in Wake Forest, and this Sunday reflection Wake Forest community moment is personal. The house is warm, the smell of pine is in the air, and we’re listening to old Christmas records we picked up at The Record Krate on White Street. As the crackle of vinyl mixes with the hum of conversation over sips of hot cocoa, the talk inevitably turns to the past.

My grandfather will turn 100 this July. He is a veteran of the 10th Army in the Pacific theater in World War II. When he came home, he didn’t just settle down; he stepped up. For decades, he has worked tirelessly with food banks, Meals on Wheels, and the Episcopal Diocese, helping to feed and house people in Greensboro. I still remember going with him as a kid on those Meals on Wheels ride-alongs, seeing firsthand what it meant to serve our neighbors.

It took time for those lessons to mature within me fully. I spent 14 years away serving in the Navy and as a private military contractor—deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, and flying missions globally during major coups, terrorist uprisings, and doing the quiet, steady work of monitoring America’s near-peer adversaries.

The lessons that my grandfather and I both learned at war, generations apart, have now come full circle: You cannot truly have “peace on earth” if your neighbor has no peace in their home—or no home at all.

As I sit here in this warmth, the reality that just a few miles down the road—in the very towns where my ancestors lived, farmed, and built this community—peace is missing, children are going hungry, and there is something we can do about it.

The Cold Hard Truth in Our Backyard

We often think of hunger and homelessness as problems for “big cities” or “somewhere else.” But the data tells a different, heartbreaking story about Wake Forest, Northern Wake County, and Franklin County.

Right now, in Franklin County—encompassing the towns of Youngsville, Franklinton, Bunn, and Louisburg—12% of our neighbors are food insecure. That is nearly 19,000 people. Even more crushing is the statistic for our most vulnerable: one in six children in Franklin County does not know where their next meal is coming from.

In Wake County, the picture is equally stark. The 2025 “Point-in-Time” count revealed a 27% increase in homelessness compared to last year. We are seeing more families, more veterans, and more elderly individuals living in their cars, in the woods, or in temporary shelters.

Sunday Reflection Wake Forest Community: The Duty Beyond Our Four Walls

I was raised at St. John’s Episcopal Church here in Wake Forest, where we did migrant ministry and Angel Trees. But I truly understood the weight of this responsibility years later, when I finally came home.

After 14 years away—serving in the Navy and working as a private military contractor overseas—I returned to North Carolina. I was attending NC State on the GI Bill and living in Cary. I joined the local VFW Post, eventually serving as the Service Officer and Senior Vice Commander.

My job was to run the Relief Program. I saw the faces of the statistics we read about. I saw the single mother who had fought in Afghanistan, now back home and needing help paying rent to keep her children warm. I saw Vietnam veterans facing eviction from their housing in their old age.

And I remember one young man vividly. He was a disabled infantry veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He had been wounded by a roadside bomb and endured multiple surgeries. When he came to us, he was living in his car on Wake Tech’s campus. Eventually, the mental strain forced him to hide his car in a secluded wooded area near Fuquay-Varina.

We stepped in. We used our relief funds to secure him a hotel room for temporary shelter, and I helped him navigate his benefits application.

But as we talked, we realized a profound connection. I was in Afghanistan, in the same timeframe and place as he was. I was working with Special Operations Task Force-SE (SOTF-SE); he was an infantryman. We never crossed paths over there, but we remembered the same events. We remembered the same heat and the same dust.

A few months later, I received a phone call from him. It was Christmas. He wasn’t in the woods anymore. He had returned home and gotten his family back together.

I tell this story because it proves a point. It demonstrates that we are not helpless in the face of suffering. It proves that when we take care of one another—when we look beyond our four walls—we can actually put families back together.

Local Action: Where to Show Up This Week

You don’t have to look far to help. In fact, we have a “network of care” right here in Wake Forest that needs your support immediately.

1. The “Pay It Forward” Market (This Thursday, Dec. 18) This coming Thursday, December 18, the Ripe for Revival mobile grocery store will be parked across from the Northern Regional Center (350 E. Holding Ave.) from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. At checkout, you can “pay it forward”—covering the cost of groceries for the family in line behind you.

2. Hope House & Wake Forest Community Table Located at 334 N. Allen Road, Hope House is a beacon for underserved youth and families, offering educational and spiritual support. They partner with the Wake Forest Community Table to serve free, hot meals every Monday from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Community Table also serves meals on Wednesdays at Olive Branch Baptist Church. These aren’t just meals; they are places where neighbors connect to build community.

3. North East Wake Backpack Buddies. For many children, school lunch is the only reliable meal they get. North East Wake Backpack Buddies fills the gap on weekends. They provide bags of healthy, kid-friendly food to children in Wake Forest and Rolesville schools who are identified as food-insecure. A small donation here ensures a child doesn’t go hungry from Friday afternoon to Monday morning.

4. Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry At 149 E. Holding Ave, Tri-Area Ministry serves thousands of families in Wake, Franklin, and Granville counties every month. They are the largest pantry in our area and are always in need of staple food items and financial support.

5. Meals on Wheels at the Center for Active Aging, located at 235 E. Holding Ave, Meals on Wheels of Wake County provides nutritious, hot meals and daily social check-ins for homebound seniors. Just as my grandfather’s work did, this service allows our elderly neighbors to age with dignity and companionship.

A Call to Action: Double Your Impact Today

My household donates to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina every month. It is one way we keep faith with the lessons my grandfather taught me and the work I did at the VFW.

But right now, the need is critical. As the nights get colder, heating bills are beginning to compete with the grocery budget for many of our neighbors in Wake and Franklin counties. No one should have to choose between staying warm and eating.

If you are looking for a sign to act, this is it.

Currently, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is running a special holiday campaign: “Match: Provide Twice the Holiday Meals.” Thanks to compassionate donors, every dollar you give right now is being matched. That means a $50 donation provides $100 worth of meals and essential services to families in our specific towns—from the struggling family in Youngsville to the elderly neighbor in Louisburg.

My grandfather didn’t fight in the Pacific for a country where children go to sleep hungry. I didn’t deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan to watch fellow veterans sleep in cars.

As we move into this season of Love, Joy, and Peace, let us ensure those words are more than just decorations. Let’s work to ensure our neighbors have actual love in the form of a hot meal, actual joy in the form of a gift for their child, and actual peace in the form of a warm, safe place to sleep.

That is our responsibility to the place that made us.

Tom Baker IV

Tom Baker IV is the publisher of Wake Forest Matters, Wake Forest’s only independent local newsroom. A Wake Forest native, Navy veteran, and intelligence professional, Tom launched Wake Forest Matters to bring serious accountability journalism to his hometown. Tips and story ideas: publisher@wakeforestmatters.com