Organizations work together to triple donations to Food Bank

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Today only, your donation to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is tripled thanks to some help from several organizations helping match each donation.

That’s on top of WECT already matching your donations this month and already reaching 60 percent of WECT’s goal of $15,000 raised.

“We’re in the middle of an initiative we call Stop Summer Hunger,” said branch director Beth Gaglione. “We do it every summer because of the challenges that we have around making sure people have the support that they need during the summer.”

Each dollar donated can buy five meals for those in need, but on Tuesday, the $1 will fund 15 meals.

Despite the pandemic slowing down and many people heading back to work, Gaglione says there is still an increased number of people standing in line for food compared with before the pandemic. In fact, numbers of people needing help are still 30 percent higher than they were in 2019.

“There’s some people that have to choose between food and rent and medicine and I think that’s a tragedy,” said volunteer Tricia Stone.

Gaglione says volunteers are crucial to their operation. There are only a few staff members on hand, but a countless number of boxes must be sorted through every day.

“They’re sorting the food that should not go out to be distributed from the food that’s perfectly good,” said Gaglione. “They’re boxing the food, they help us move the food.”

When it’s time for the Food Bank’s 130 partners to pick up the food for their community, it’s sorted into categories for easy hand-out.

“It’s a big help — awesome help,” said Nathaniel Best with Lifesavers Outreach in Whiteville. “They do a lot to support us and we just try to get the job done.”

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