Moyock Woman’s Club grant supports mobile food pantries in Currituck County

Published 5:46 pm Thursday, May 5, 2022

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Food Bank of the Albemarle has announced a grant award of $13,500 from Moyock Woman’s Club, which will provide funding for three new mobile food distributions. The target population for the grant-funded mobile distributions will be residents of Currituck County.

“We sincerely thank the Moyock Woman’s Club for making this grant possible, so that the Food Bank can reach the underserved populations in Currituck County,” said Liz Reasoner, executive director. “Thanks to this support, the Food Bank will be able to provide food and necessary resources to people in need throughout the county.”

“We are so excited about our new partnership with the Food Bank of the Albemarle, and we look forward to being part of the strategic discussions around eliminating hunger in Currituck County,” said Joanna Brumsey, president of the Moyock Woman’s Club. “In addition to the Food Bank grant, we donated $3,500 to five of our local food pantries plus blessing boxes placed throughout the county.”

Get the latest headlines sent to you

Food insecurity in Currituck County touches 3,420 individuals, or 13%, of which 940 are children. Currently, the Food Bank has partnered with three food pantries in Currituck: Fellowship Baptist Church, Pilmoor United Methodist Church and Lower Currituck Food Pantry.

“As an agricultural hub of the State, the Food Bank service area has a high population of immigrant workers, persons of color, and higher than average rates of uninsured residents. As examples, of those the Food Bank serves, an average of 59% are African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, or two or more races,” stated a Food Bank of the Albemarle press release. “As North Carolina’s uninsured rate reaches nearly 13%, in the counties served, the rates are much higher. The range is from 16%-25% with an average of 19% across all 15 counties.”

“As of April, many of the expanded federal safety net programs that provided financial resources during the pandemic have expired. We are seeing the effect of inflation on everyday goods like food, gas, housing, and services,” Reasoner added. “All these increases hit the poor the hardest, the same segment of people that struggle with food insecurity. High cost for everyday items will mean that seniors, families and veterans will need to depend on the emergency food programs to get their meals. These new Food Bank mobile distributions will help ease that burden a bit, by providing 29,300 meals over the next year.”

Goals for the three mobile distributions, which will begin on May 6, include:

– Increase food distribution by 35,160 pounds from May 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023.

– Provide food to 170-250 Currituck North Carolina residents needing food assistance.

– Provide nutrition education and recipes to every household on a quarterly basis through written literature.

For additional information on Food Bank of the Albemarle, visit www.afoodbank.org.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.