Paths to Purpose with Darrell Reynolds

In this series, we’re honored to introduce you to the people of Second Harvest—colleagues whose stories inspire and whose daily commitment helps build food-secure communities for all. Many bring life experiences that have shaped their path and guide their work here, grounding their compassion in empathy, understanding, and a shared belief in the power of community. Through their stories, we celebrate the diverse journeys that shape our mission and the common purpose that unites us.

When Darrell Reynolds drives a Second Harvest truck across Northwest North Carolina, he carries more than bread, produce, and meat. He carries the weight of lived experience—of knowing what it is to go hungry, of surviving on the streets, and of being lifted up by someone else’s kindness. Today, that history fuels his optimism, his compassion, and his daily commitment to help others.

As the middle of five children in a troubled family, Darrell knew poverty and hunger firsthand. “I was raised on pinto beans, stewed potatoes, and biscuits,” he recalls. Often left to fend for himself and his siblings, he cobbled together meals—egg noodles with ketchup—and made sure the others ate before he did. “I was glad to have it,” he reflects on the foods that filled his childhood, if not always his belly.

Homeless at 14, Darrell slept anywhere he could find, ate out of dumpsters, and drank from mud puddles and creeks. “Life wasn’t always good. I’ve got a choice now to do good and I’m not going back,” he says. “I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through if I can help it.”

That resolve serves him well at Second Harvest, where he drives to three Walmart stores and Sam’s Warehouse, picking up bread, meat, produce and salvaged merchandise. Back at Second Harvest's headquarters warehouse in Winston-Salem, he sorts the bounty so others can pack it for delivery to partnering food pantries and programs from Burlington to Boone.

Living on the streets with an empty stomach, Darrell didn’t know about food pantries. “I just had to fend for myself. I didn’t know that people I had never met would give me food,” he says. “It’s amazing what Second Harvest does to help people they will never meet.”

Darrell found his way to Second Harvest as a temporary employee during COVID. When a permanent job became available, he jumped at the opportunity. “I told them I would never be late, I’ll never call in sick,” he says. “If I am not here to run my route, there is no one else to do it and people won’t get what they need. They deserve to eat.”

Driving his route in a truck emblazoned with the Second Harvest's core belief, Everyone deserves to eat, Darrell sees himself in the face of every hungry person on the street corner holding a sign asking for help. He buys bottles of water and packages of crackers to hand out. “I’ve been where they are. I’ve known what it feels like to be hungry and homeless,” he says. “Somebody helped me. How can I not help them?”

His own help came from a friend’s grandmother when he was still living on the streets. She lived in poverty herself, but when Darrell offered her his last five dollars, she refused to let him leave. “From that moment on she let me stay there because of kindness,” he says. It was the break he needed—three years of stability that became a turning point.

Darrell never forgot his days on the street or the way he climbed out of poverty. Later, working as a taxi driver, he would pick up homeless people on Thanksgiving and Christmas, bringing them home for a hot meal, a bath, and a place to sleep. “I always thought of how lonely I felt living on the street, especially on holidays.”

Today, Darrell says it warms his heart to see people getting the help they need and the opportunity to turn their lives around.  “I don’t judge other people because I have been there. I know what they are going through. Everybody needs to eat.  It’s a blessing to help others who need it,” he says.

His blessings also include three children and eight grandchildren, including a newborn granddaughter facing serious health challenges. Darrell is helping care for her and supporting his daughter through the ordeal. Family, he says, is what keeps him grounded.

“I’ve had so many obstacles and challenges in my life, but I keep shining through,” he says. “I talk to everybody and I know how to read people. I’m a jokester—that’s how I’ve gotten through life.”

Now in his mid-60s, Darrell plans to keep working until at least 70. “There are a lot of hungry people who need help,” he says. “I got help, and now I get to help. This is the best job I’ve ever had.”

Darrell’s journey—from hunger and homelessness to hope and purpose—embodies the heart of Second Harvest’s mission. His story is a reminder that compassion often grows out of lived experience, and that every person has the power to turn hardship into service. Through his daily work and quiet acts of kindness, Darrell shows us what it means to walk a path to purpose—and in doing so, helps light the way for others.