Hunger Relief Day helps thousands of NC families
Food Lion Hunger Relief Day at the NC State Fair is always a crucial day for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, but the need is greater than normal in 2013, spokeswoman Christy Simmons said Thursday.
Posted — Updated"We've seen about a 12 percent increase in need since June," Simmons said.
Because of that increase, food bank, fair and Food Lion officials decided to increase the donation amount required to receive free admission to the fair. Fairgoers will receive one free admission for every five cans of Food Lion food.
"Food Lion Hunger Relief Day not only benefits our food bank, but it benefits our sister food banks," Simmons said. "In our food bank's 34-county service area, we serve about 560,000 people each day who live at or below the poverty level."
Since 2004, fairgoers have donated more than 1.8 million pounds of food. Last year, fairgoers donated more than 214,000 pounds of food which was equivalent to 180,242 meals. About 400 volunteers will be on hand Thursday to collect donations.
"We're so thankful to fairgoers who will bring their cans of food with them today," Simmons said. "It's a huge community effort."
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