Since the closure of North Carolina public schools due to the spread of the coronavirus, Richmond County Schools has been providing 5,000 grab-and-go meals a day for its students who rely on school breakfast and lunch.
When the district began to run low on bags to distribute the meals, they reached out to the public for help.
Hood Packaging in Hamlet stepped up by donating over 60,000 bags to the district.
The manufacturing plant produces bags and a wide range of paper, plastic and poly-woven packaging products.
“The call was out there to help anyway we can,” said Stanley Hopkins, manufacturing manager at Hood Packaging. “And this was a way for us to do that.”
“It’s a good motivator for the crew to be able to supply direct support during this time,” said Hopkins. “It’s a good morale booster for the plant.”
Hood Packaging plans to keep one of its production lines running to continue producing bags for the district during the school closure.
Ronnie Norton, child nutrition supervisor with Richmond County Schools, expressed that Hood Packaging’s donation relieved a burden for the district and the number of bags donated would have cost them $10,700 to purchase.
“It’s encouraging to see the community getting involved with our program,” said Norton. “And while we see the necessity of the food, the details of how the food is packaged is overlooked. This donation helps us out financially and timely since we don’t have to seek-out and purchase more bags.”
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