Every year, we take this opportunity to thank you for your dedication and support in ensuring no one goes hungry in central and eastern North Carolina. And our impact report helps, on a yearly basis, serve as a reminder that hunger is a year-round struggle for the people we support. Hunger doesn’t take a break, and it doesn’t align itself to the holiday season.

This all remains true. But as I am sure you well know, this year has been harder. Our whole service area reeled from the impact of Hurricanes Florence and Michael — an impact that is still being felt every day, particularly in the east. The storms devastated not only the communities and people we serve (and people we were not serving prior to the storms) but our partner agencies themselves. We’re incredibly thankful to have had the resources to do pre-storm preparations, and to be able to dive in to relief efforts immediately following the storm. We’re still working every day to ensure that the needs are being met, and that the counties working to recover know that the Food Bank will be there for them for the long haul.

In the midst of disaster relief, we were suddenly faced with the impact of a government shutdown. Again, resources were needed immediately. In many cases we were serving new populations of people in new ways, working to make sure we understood and could meet the need of people facing hunger.

The common thread in this tough year is that, thanks to you, the Food Bank can meet these needs. It has taken flexibility, new approaches to service, and the ability to be nimble in our operations to ensure our friends and neighbors feel supported and remembered. Thanks to the resources you provide and the trust you put in the Food Bank, we can adjust how we serve. That’s not something any of us take for granted, and we appreciate your support every single day.

With great thanks,

Peter Werbicki
President & CEO
Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina

President/CEO Peter Werbicki