Wilmington food bank celebrates one year anniversary amid rising challenges

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina’s Wilmington Branch celebrated its one-year anniversary on Wednesday.  

The state-of-the-art facility is among the largest in the state. In the last year, the food bank provided the equivalent of 10 million meals to those in need.   

To put that into perspective, that’s roughly one meal for every person in North Carolina.   

But despite that accomplishment, Director of Communications Jennifer Caslan said the underlying problem is only getting worse.  

“Unfortunately, across the country and in North Carolina, hunger is worsening. It’s actually the worst it’s been since the great recession in 2008. We went from 1 in 9 people in our service area being food insecure to 1 in 7, and from 1 in 7 kids to 1 in 5 kids,” she said. 

Unlike most food banks, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC also operates a food pantry for anyone in need. 

“It’s just like a little neighborhood corner market. So we want everybody to have a safe and… Not feel ashamed to come here and seek out help, because that’s why we are here,” Caslan said. 

Part of the facility also includes a large commercial kitchen that can provide meals to partner agencies. Director of Regional Development Beth Gaglione said the kitchen doubles as a training space for the local culinary industry and—as hurricane season approaches—a place to feed the community following a storm. 

“We observed that New Hanover County really did not have a kitchen that could become the one place that disaster meals were being prepared,” Gaglione said. 

Gaglione adds that although the food bank has accomplished a lot in the last year, their work is far from over.  

“As we just learned, we know that hunger is not diminishing unfortunately, that it is increasing, and that means we’ve got more work to do,” she said. 

To support the work of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC, or if you are experiencing food insecurity, you can visit their website to learn more.