Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina Champions for Kids Hunger Relief Day

Streets at Southpoint and Food Lion Support Kids Summer Stock Kickoff

The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and Food Lion will kick off the 5th Annual Kids Summer Stock Food and Funds Drive on Saturday, June 2 located at the Streets at Southpoint Mall in Durham, N.C.

The event, “Champions For Kids Hunger Relief Day,” will include a canned goods structure build inside the mall and a “Drive Through Day” urging local residents to donate food to help needy families during the summer months.

“For more than 300,000 children in the Food Bank’s 34-county service, summer means a break from school, but also from much needed free and reduced-cost meals,” said Christy Simmons, Manager of Public Relations for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. “June, July, and August are also months when food drive donations slow down for food banks nationally.”

Now in the fifth year, Kids Summer Stock is an awareness building campaign to collect food and funds to help these children and their families. Donations received will help fill the empty shelves of the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina warehouses in Durham, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, Sandhills, and Wilmington, N.C. The Kids Summer Stock campaign has been extremely successful, providing six million meals during the past four summers. This year the goal is to raise two million meals for children and their families in the Food Bank’s service area.

The public can help fight hunger locally at the Streets at Southpoint in Durham on Saturday, June 2 by participating in the following activities:

• Cans For Kids Build – This event will take place at 9 a.m. inside the mall in front of Nordstrom. Mall visitors can watch a local team build a large structure out of 3,000 canned non-perishable items donated by Food Lion. The structure will remain in place for one week before being deconstructed, with the items being donated to the food bank.
• Drive Through Day – This event will take place from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. in front of Champps Crossover store. Local residents are asked to drive up and drop off their non-perishable food donations. For every Food Lion my essentials item donated, a donation of up to $10,000 will be made to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Items most need include the following: peanut butter, canned soups, stews, raviolis, fruit cups, applesauce, granola bars, popcorn, graham or animal crackers, fat-free/sugar-free pudding cups, diapers, wipes, infant formula, infant cereal, and hygiene items.

About the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina
The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is a nonprofit organization that has provided food for people at risk of hunger in 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina for 30 years. The Food Bank serves a network of more than 800 partner agencies such as soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and programs for children and adults through warehouses in Durham, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, the Sandhills (Southern Pines), and Wilmington. In fiscal year 2010-2011, the Food Bank distributed more than 42.75 million pounds of food and non-food essentials through these agencies. Sadly, hunger remains a serious problem in central and eastern North Carolina. In these counties, more than 500,000 struggle each day to provide enough food for their families. www.foodbankcenc.org.

About Food Lion
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., is a company of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group (NYSE: DEG) and operates more than 1,100 supermarkets. The company employs approximately 57,000 associates delivering quality products, low prices and service to customers in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.