Angela Caraway is someone who says yes. Sometimes that means saying yes to an opportunity, other times it means saying yes to the voice of God while at the grocery store.
Saying Yes at the Grocery Store
Regarding the latter, one night in 2007 Angela went to pick up a few things to make breakfast for dinner. Since she was only grabbing three items — milk, eggs, and cheese — she didn’t grab a cart. As she turned toward the dairy section at the end of an aisle, a voice told her to grab all the backpacks she’d just walked by on the school supply shelves. She continued on to grab her intended items. However, when she retraced the same route in reverse to head to the checkout, she heard the voice again… and an empty shopping cart had now appeared in the aisle.
“…The voice says again, “Buy all the backpacks.” And then I was like, “Who am I buying all the backpacks for?,” Angela says. She doesn’t have children, and, back in 2007, her niece and nephew were too young for school.
This wasn’t the first time Angela had heard God telling her to act.
“I have experienced whenever I don’t do what He asked, how it goes so wrong. And so I followed it. I trusted the process,“ she says.
The backpacks were not only sturdy, they were also on sale for $3. She grabbed the cart and filled it with school supplies.
Saying Yes to a Foundation
Then, she went home and wrote up a plan for The Caraway Foundation. Soon after, while still living in Garner, she began holding seminars in Anson County where she grew up, helping local students prepare for college. The foundation’s education-oriented beginnings led to the creation of area high school scholarships as well as a North Carolina State University scholarship.
“The community engagement side of me is where my heart lives and this is where I cry and where I stay up late and that’s where I try to figure out who can I meet and talk to about my little rural, Tier One county that can help us move forward and think outside of the box and provide opportunities to the youth. That’s what keeps me up at night.”
Angela Caraway
What happened at the grocery store led to foundation programming that’s grown organically based on community needs: through the Anson Youth Leaders Academy, which helps kids build skills in leadership, philanthropic responsibility, and more; the Village of Strength program™ that supports people and caregivers dealing with cancer and chronic illness; along with digital literacy classes, food distribution, and more.
Of this work, Angela says, “The community engagement side of me is where my heart lives and this is where I cry and where I stay up late and that’s where I try to figure out who can I meet and talk to about my little rural, Tier One county that can help us move forward and think outside of the box and provide opportunities to the youth. That’s what keeps me up at night.”
In 2021, after years in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, Angela moved back to Anson County, where she was born and raised. In 2023, she was elected Ansonville’s mayor. Along with running the foundation, she owns an event planning company, Caraway Management Group, Inc.
Saying Yes to Distributing 1300 Boxes of Food
In 2023, Angela received a Rural Center Community Advocate of the Year award for distributing 1.5 million pounds of food during the pandemic. That effort began after learning that a county nonprofit where her mother was volunteering was distributing food. Angela wondered how she could distribute food in Ansonville. This effort led not only to distributing food to people in Ansonville, but also to individuals who drove in from the surrounding area.
“Sometimes we got 1,200 boxes, sometimes we got 3,000 boxes because they would call and say, “Angela, can you handle two more tractor trailer loads?” And “I was like, I sure can. I don’t know where I’m gonna set up, but yes, I sure can.’”
– Angela Caraway
To start her own food distribution effort, Angela followed a few leads that eventually led to a phone call where a distributor told her they could deliver 1,300 boxes. Even though she said yes, she also had questions: “I reached out to other organizations because I’m like, “How am I going to give out 1,300 boxes of food? And what if I don’t give it all out? Where am I going to put it?””
The distribution operation, which is still in operation, grew organically in terms of the amount of food and the number of volunteers.
“Sometimes we got 1,200 boxes, sometimes we got 3,000 boxes because they would call and say, “Angela, can you handle two more tractor trailer loads?” And “I was like, I sure can. I don’t know where I’m gonna set up, but yes, I sure can.’”
Through distributing food, Angela met a forklift driver who happened to see her looking toward a building downtown one day. He mentioned it was for sale and that his wife was on the board.
Saying Yes to a Building
That following Monday, Angela went to see the building, and when she did, “…I knew this was the building that God had shown me 10 years prior in a dream. I didn’t know where the building was going to be. I knew it would be in Anson County, but I didn’t know where in Anson County,” she says.
On April 1, 2022, the Caraway Business and Learning Center, opened in that very building.
Angela lives by Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.”
She says yes because she knows that the plan will appear once she’s done so.
Her goal for the foundation is to eventually hire an executive director who can take it to the next level. She also wants to run for mayor again; work on her foundation’s survivorship arm, helping people who have had cancer and chronic illnesses (Angela is a colon cancer survivor); and become a flight attendant.
She says the why of her work comes down to sharing her story and helping others where she can, including nudging people toward all the great things there are to do in this world.
When Angela started distributing food there wasn’t a large proclamation that she was going to distribute 1.5 million pounds of food. But it happened through continuing to say yes: to to the voice of God, to 1300 boxes of food even though she wasn’t 100% sure what to do with them, to moving back home again, and more. All moves that have helped her find more and more ways to help Anson County.
Saying Yes to Leadership
Another time she said yes was to Homegrown Leaders, a rural leadership program held by the Rural Center three times a year — once each in eastern, western, and central North Carolina.
As she looks ahead to the future, both for her and her foundation, she’s been taking leadership courses to strengthen her own leadership skills.
One important takeaway for Angela from Homegrown Leaders has been the importance of taking collaboration seriously. Through the program, she met a cohort member who works at Mountaire Farms. As a result, Angela has worked with her to distribute Mountaire Farms care boxes.
The other Homegrown Leaders takeaway has been the importance of being honest with yourself. This openness runs through her work. And, for Angela, her work also means remembering Proverbs 3:5-6, which guides her life and her career. Because sometimes running in to get a few things to have breakfast for dinner, can lead to a whole lot more than just milk, eggs, and cheese.