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LEWISTON WOODVILLE – A homegrown idea to help reduce the number of food-insecure people living in Bertie and Hertford counties attracted a large number of volunteers here this past Saturday morning, including a sitting United States Congressman.

Since late May, the Health and Wellness Ministry at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church has been accepting donations of non-perishable food items. Those items were evenly divided among 10 food pantries operating within Bertie and Hertford counties.

Saturday (June 28) was pick-up day for those pantries. One by one, vehicles from Askewville Community Food Drive, All God’s Children Church, Good Shepherd Food Pantry Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church Food Pantry, Ahoskie Food Pantry, Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, St. Pauls Church of Murfreesboro, St. Johns 2nd Baptist Church, Victory of Praise, and Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church were loaded by a small army of volunteers. Among them was U.S. Congressman Don Davis, who represents North Carolina’s First District.

Prior to rolling up his sleeves and working to load the vehicles, Davis spoke of possible budget cuts at the federal level that would severely impact nutritional programs.

“We’re fighting for families across eastern North Carolina,” Davis said inside the Northeast Center for Human Development in Lewiston Woodville. “We see there’s a lot going on in DC. Right now [Congress] is working on parts of [President Trump’s] ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ We’re on standby with that. There are some parts of it that are really bad and will have devastating impacts here in eastern North Carolina. It has devastating cuts on nutrition. That’s why you’re here today.

“We experience so much food insecurity here in eastern North Carolina,” Davis continued. “This bill cuts almost 300 billion dollars from nutrition programs. We’re talking about children, women, seniors, our Veterans and their dependents. We shouldn’t take food away from the dependent children of our Veterans.

“We’re going to keep fighting for you. We’re not going to yield. We’re here to work for our people. And to you I say thank you, thank you, thank you for what you’re doing. This is about people helping people,” Davis concluded.

Linda McNair-Moore of the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church Health and Wellness Ministry deemed the food drive as a huge success.

“This has been a journey, but it has been a joyous journey,” McNair-Moore said. “If it had not been for those who donated and for our many volunteers, we would not be here today. We thank you all for your efforts. We all worked well together.”

She noted the food drive launched on May 23 and items were collected until June 18.

“Once we got permission from the church to move forward, we hit the ground running.

She thanked the West Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association as well as the “Divine Nine” – representatives from local Greek fraternities and sororities.

“Whenever we call on them, they never say no,” McNair-Moore said, naming Rho Theta Lambda Chapter – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Rho Rho Chapter – Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Xi Rho Omega Chapter – Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. (individual – Viretta Vann), Delta Pi Zeta Chapter – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. – Ahoskie Alumnae Chapter.

Other local partners included State Employees Credit Union of Ahoskie and Windsor, Roanoke-Chowan Community Health Center, West Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association, and George W. Lee IBPOEW Elks Lodge #756.

Rev. Dr. James E. Jones Jr., Pastor of Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, opened the event with prayer.

McNair-Moore praised the work of the 10 local food pantries that operate in Bertie and Hertford counties.

“They do all the hard work,” she noted.

McNair-Moore offered an explanation of why food drives such as this one are becoming more and more critical.

“It’s due to the fact that government funding has ceased for some food programs,” she said. “That has affected our local food pantries. We have monthly meetings with the Food Bank of the Albemarle (based in Elizabeth City and serves 15 counties) and we learned about how we can help make up the difference. That’s what we’re doing today. It’s a community effort to help out.

“A lot of people have chosen to buy their medicine rather than food,” McNair-Moore added. “That’s where the food pantries help fill the void. That food also helps provide nourishment to our local children who are at home during the summer months and not getting fed like they do while in school.”

McNair-Moore signaled out the top three organizations providing the most food items. Topping the list is Pleasant Oak Missionary Baptist Church followed, in order, by Jordan Grove Missionary Baptist Church and Xi Rho Omega (Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.).

Food Bank of the Albemarle announced in May that new figures from Feeding America’s annual “Map the Meal Gap” study show that food insecurity has surged across the 15-county region the Food Bank serves.

In northeastern North Carolina, “Map the Meal Gap” finds 13,920 children (1 in 4) are food insecure in this region. The overall number of food-insecure individuals has risen 6.5% from 43,000 to 46,440 (1 in 6).

The uncertainty of policy of critical Federal programs that people depend on, like SNAP (aka Food Stamps), The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) means that less food will be reaching those that need it most.

SNAP (Food and Nutrition Services, FNS in NC) is a lifeline for individuals, children, families, seniors and veterans to be able to put food on the table and enables them to have the dignity of choice to purchase food. SNAP provides nine meals for every meal that Food Bank of the Albemarle can provide.

Among the food sources used by the Food Bank of the Albemarle, 37 percent comes from USDA programs (TEFAP, CSFP). 33,600 boxes of food (over 1 million meals) support over 2,800 seniors each year through CSFP.

Other sources are local retail partners, farmers, corporate donors, private donors, and food drives. Additional food is purchased to meet the local demand.