It’s lunchtime at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church and all the children at Leadership Academy are enjoying a balanced meal with protein, fruits/veggies, grains, and milk, thanks to Food Bank CENC’s summer meals program.
Then one of the supervisors comes back into the kitchen area. “Are there any leftover meals today?” she asks. “Some of the children are still hungry.”
There are three extra sandwiches that day, so the supervisor cuts them in half and serves them to six kids asking for more. The program director, Delores, explains: “We know that for many of the children, this will be the only meal they have for the day.” The only meal.
Delores goes on to say that extra food at lunch isn’t the only way they support the children asking for seconds. At the end of the day, they send these children home with nutritious food from their church pantry, which is kept full from the Food Bank through your generous donor support. Because where there’s a hungry child, there’s usually hungry family members too.
This is what summer hunger looks like in central and eastern North Carolina. Children not feeling full, and parents struggling to keep food on the table. But thanks to your support, we can remove the grown-up worries for kids in our community, and help ease the stress of their parents. We can help kids just be kids all summer long. But we cannot Stop Summer Hunger alone.
Why Summer is hungry
Nearly 300,000 children in our 34 counties rely on the free and reduced-cost meals at school to get them through the day. For them, summertime doesn’t mean a fun-filled vacation. For them, no school means no meals. Stop Summer Hunger is our annual initiative to provide additional food to feed these children and their families during this season of increased need. Our Partner Agencies, like Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, help us reach kids and families in need across our service area.
You can help
Support our Kids Summer Meals program and the increased need of food insecure families during the summer by contributing to our Stop Summer Hunger goal of raising 3.9 million meals. Through July 31, gifts are MATCHED thanks to our generous corporate sponsors (up to $102,500)!
 |
 |
 |
