Fundraising deadline approaching to help open new food bank

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - We’re in the final stretch of a fundraiser to open the doors to a new food bank. All month, WECT has partnered with other media outlets to raise $100,000 by tomorrow, September 17.

nCino Hunger Solution Center is the name of the facility thanks to a generous donation of $1 million from nCino. $7 million was needed to build the new food bank, but the project is now $100,000 over budget after a significant increase in the price of construction materials.

The new building will store twice as much food as the current facility, which is currently cramped and old. The new food bank will include a teaching kitchen and community garden, nourishing an area that became a food desert after a grocery store that once sat on this property burned down.

Beth Gaglione, branch director of Food Bank Central & Eastern North Carolina, is proud to provide people a business that they don’t have access to anymore

“What people want is a place that they can buy food, like the grocery store that they lost. The market is our answer to that loss.”

All of the money that is raised thus far was from donations from the community. We are a little over $80,000 from the $100,000 mark and need your help to reach our goal.

The new facility is expected to open early 2023.

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