WS Chronicle

Second Harvest Food Bank marked the start of the organization’s 40th year of service to the people of Northwest North Carolina with the that through Food Lion Feeds, the retailer’s hunger relief initiative, the company is contributing $1 million to the Food Bank’s Hunger for Change Capital Campaign. The gift represents the largest corporate gift to the campaign to build a new headquarters home for Second Harvest at Whitaker Park in Winston-Salem. 

The funding will support the new Providence Culinary Training and Nutrition Education Center nourished by Food Lion Feeds, which will be housed within the new building. The announcement was appropriately made at the first ceremony of the New Year honoring 11 graduates of the Food Bank’s Providence Culinary Training Program.  

“We’re proud to support the Food Bank and help create more opportunities for our neighbors through the Providence Culinary Training Program,” said Travis Garland, director of operations, Food Lion. “The Food Bank does incredible work to fight food insecurity across northwest North Carolina, and we know this gift will only strengthen the Food Bank’s ability to nourish neighbors in the Triad and beyond.”

“Food Lion Feeds’ support of Second Harvest Food Bank’s mission and work extends back 28 years,” stated Eric Aft, chief executive officer for Second Harvest. “Their support and partnership runs wide and deep, with this most recent, very significant investment highlighting Food Lion Feeds’ commitment to helping organizations like ours expand transformational approaches to addressing hunger and its causes.”

“Food Lion Feeds is hungry for change, as we are at Second Harvest and in the work we do within Providence, changing lives, once recipe at a time,” said Jeff Bacon, vice president and executive director for Providence. “Food Lion Feeds understands how essential it is that we all work together to make sure that even as we help to address the urgent needs of families, we also work together to change the circumstances driving the need for food assistance. That’s what Providence is about, and we could not be more thankful for the support of Food Lion Feeds.” 

Second Harvest Food Bank’s strong response to the heightened need among families across our region resulting from the pandemic and its economic impact continues to be tremendous with the support of committed partners, including Food Lion Feeds. With its new headquarters slated to open this fall, Second Harvest Food Bank will be able to do even more to support the more than 500 local food assistance programs in its network and expand upon and create approaches to impact hunger and help families working to improve their lives every day across the 18 counties of Northwest North Carolina.