Fight Hunger, Spark Change and Help Provide Fresh, Healthy Produce Across Northeast North Carolina!

The Food Bank of the Albemarle needs your help to fight hunger in northeast North Carolina! 

Walmart’s Fight Hunger. Spark Change. initiative begins today, September 15. We need your help in voting the Food Bank of the Albemarle into the top 50 food banks in the nation!

If we finish this competition, we will win $60,000 to acquire and distribute fresh healthy produce to those in need across the 15 counties we serve. A portion of awarded funds will benefit the hunger relief programs several of our Hunger Relief Partners operate. The more votes the Food Bank gets, the better chance we have of winning! It’s easy to vote:

1.    Visit www.walmart.com/hunger

2.    Search for “Food Bank of the Albemarle”

3.    Vote once per day through October 5!

4.    Share your vote and the link with your friends and family on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Award recipients will be determined based on the number of votes received in a public voting campaign from September 15 to October 5, 2014.

For more information on the “Fight Hunger. Spark Change.” initiative, visit the Food Bank’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ECFoodBank or www.afoodbank.org.

Thank you for your support!

Tornadoes Strike Northeast North Carolina

On Friday, April 25th, strong storms rocked the eastern coastal plains of North Carolina causing tornadoes that damaged many homes, some destroyed completely in. This is not a regular occurrence in our region and the damage was devastating for many families.

Part of our mission as the Food Bank of the Albemarle is to respond to disasters when they happen. Food is essential and we respond by helping provide water and food to other emergency response agencies as well as people who are directly in need. When the tornadoes struck, the staff at the Food Bank of the Albemarle immediately responded, despite being without power temporarily and without phone or internet service for 5 days. Counties in our service territory that needed help were Beaufort, Chowan, Pasquotank and Perquimans.

A delivery of disaster relief supplies from God's Pit Crew
arrived at the Food Bank of the Albemarle following
the storm.

We were blessed that God's Pit Crew, a disaster relief organization from Virginia, saw what had happened in northeast North Carolina and delivered water and Gatorade to us the Sunday following the storm. We were able to provide those supplies to the City of Elizabeth City as well as the Red Cross to help them as they served people whose houses were lost. We opened our food pantry to people who had been affected by the storms and provided 45 households with groceries to get them through the next difficult phase of their lives as they rebuild all they've lost.

The Red Cross received food from the Food Bank of the
Albemarle

Water and Gatorade that was provided to people and
organizations who needed it.

Two Area Law Firms Win In 2014 Legal Feeding Frenzy!

In the 2nd Annual Legal Feeding Frenzy, a food drive competition among North Carolina's law firms, 2 local firms won their respective categories which is based on the number of employees. Simonsen Law Firm from Chowan County and Rose, Harrison & Gilreath, P.C. from Dare County were both recognized as winners by Attorney General, Roy Cooper on April 24th at the North Carolina Bar Association in Cary, NC.

Seventy-nine teams participated in the event and raised over 340,000 pounds of food – the equivalent of 280,000 meals – and easily shattered the goal of 250,000 pounds.

Speakers at the awards ceremony included Allan Head, executive director of the North Carolina Bar Association; Alan Briggs, executive director of the N.C. Association of Food Banks; Clark Walton, YLD chair; and YLD Legal Feeding Frenzy co-chairs, Cabell Clay and Brian Scott.

The winning teams were:

Attorney General’s Cup (most overall pounds of food per employee)
Mason Law Office, PLLC, Raleigh (3,397.5 pounds per employee)
Tonya Mason accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Solo Practitioner (1-10 employees)
Simonsen Law Firm, PC, Edenton (1,850 pounds per employee)
Lars Simonsen accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Small Firm (11-50 employees)
Rose, Harrison & Gilreath, P.C., Kill Devil Hills (828.6 pounds per employee)
Peebles Harrison accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Medium Firm (51-100 employees)
Bell, Davis & Pitt, P.A., Winston-Salem (76.4 pounds per employee)
Robin Stinson accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Large Firm (101 employees and up)
Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte (headquarters) and RTP (139.7 pounds per person)
Cabell Clay accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Law School

Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston-Salem (21.3 pounds per person)
Caleb Holloway accepted the award on behalf of the law school.

Most Pounds Collected
Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, Winston-Salem (headquarters), Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh, Charlotte (91,770.88 pounds)

Aulica Monroe accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Help us win $5,000 from Outnumber Hunger!

General Mills and their customers have been helping food banks across the nation fight hunger through Outnumber Hunger online through Dixie 105.7's Outnumber Hunger site! When a code is entered, General Mills will donate 55.5¢ to Feeding America and local food banks. Now in it's third year, the program allows customers who purchase specially marked General Mills products to enter a code

Many country music stars have been involved in this great program since the beginning. Artists like Florida-Georgia Line, The Band Perry and Rascal Flatts have helped get the word out about hunger in our communities.

This year, there is a new way to help food banks fight hunger with Outnumber Hunger! Now through May 19th, weekly awards of $5,000 will be awarded to the food bank with the most codes entered during that week! On May 26th, a grand prize of $50,000 will be awarded to the food bank with the most codes entered throughout the campaign!

Help us win $5,000 or $50,000 - the equivalent to approximately 20,000 and 200,000 meals for people in need! All you have to do is grocery shop and enter those codes!

North Carolina Representative Steinburg Visits the Food Bank

We had the pleasure of hosting NC Representative, Bob Steinburg, at the Food Bank of the Albemarle on Friday, April 11th. Our Director of Operations, Jim Thomas, gave Mr. Steinburg a tour of our facility and the work that we do on a daily basis.

We send our gratitude to Mr. Steinburg for spending some time with us and learning about our operation!

Send your Valentine a gift from the heart!

Valentine's Day is around the corner and every year I hear from various people how Valentine's Day is overly commercialized. We are giving you the chance to show some love to your Valentine as well as help make a difference in our community by helping to fight hunger. If you make a Valentine's Day gift from the heart to the Food Bank of the Albemarle, we will send your designated Valentine - maybe your child, spouse or significant other, grandchild, sibling or parent - a card acknowledging your gift! You can make your Valentine's Day donation here.

Remember, just $1 can provide 5 pounds of food or approximately 4 meals to someone in need!

And let us know what you love about Valentine's Day!