Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC welcomes new CEO, faces federal grant cut

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina announced the nonprofit is welcoming a new CEO as the organization grapples with a federal funding cut. 

The state’s largest hunger relief organization announced Friday that Amy Beros will be the organization’s new president and CEO. Beros brings with her decades of experience working in food bank operations. 

On Friday, she traveled to the Food Bank at Wilmington, which itself provided more than 8 million meals to those in need last year. The food bank location also offers a free food market and helps supply other food pantries and soup kitchens in the cape fear. 

Beros said she comes to the organization at a pivotal time, as hunger is on the rise and the nonprofit faces a $1.7 million federal funding cut from the USDA. 

“Those were though federal grants that were already committed and we’ve made commitments to local farmers that we are working to try and make up those dollars that we are now not going to get reimbursed for,” Beros explained. “This is an incredibly difficult time for food insecurity. We’re at higher levels than we’ve seen in nearly 20 years.” 

Beros said despite the loss of grant funding, the organization is still committed to fulfilling the same level of service to its community partners.