Since the spread of the coronavirus, the number of struggling families continues to increase, along with their need for food.
Hope Street Food Pantry is working to address this need by providing a three-day supply of groceries and toiletries to those in need every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Because of the spike in requests for food, the pantry has been feeding more than 800 people a day.
The pantry is one of 800 agencies that rely on food donations from Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.
“A lot of times, we would only need to get our food from Second Harvest Food Bank, but where they're serving so many food pantries, everyone is going after the same food,” said Melody Leedy, director of Hope Street Food Pantry.
Second Harvest needs funds to purchase healthy shelf stable items for food boxes. These boxes will help feed families whose children are missing school meals, seniors being asked to stay safely in their homes, those in need of food who are quarantined and employees in our community being impacted by decreases in work hours.
For the past 15 years, WSOC-TV and Second Harvest have partnered to end area hunger through the 9 Food Drive. One unforeseen effect of the coronavirus has been significant changes to how food donations can be collected and distributed.
This year, the 9 Food Drive campaign is transitioning to a virtual food drive and will only accept online monetary donations. Funds donated will help the food bank purchase staple grocery items with which to continue packing food boxes.
With Second Harvest staff packing 2,500 boxes a week, and with an additional 10,000 boxes a week being packed by volunteers at the Charlotte Convention Center, the food bank will be packing tens of thousands of food boxes within the next 30 days.
Second Harvest has a donation program in place with different levels of giving. Donors can equate their monetary donation to what can be supplied by the food bank.
Here are some of the giving levels:
A donation of $7 will help provide a food backpack for children missing school meals.
A donation of $13 will help provide a food box of 12 to 13 healthy staple items.
A donation of $25 will help provide a seven-day nutritionally balanced food box.
Food boxes are filled with a variety of items (e.g.,peanut butter for protein, cereal, fruit and vegetables). Each box varies depending on what items the food bank can purchase.
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK AND THE 9 FOOD DRIVE.