In all the hustle and bustle, we know it’s important to you to give back during the holiday season and reflect on community.

It wasn’t that long ago that hunger was generally perceived in a vacuum. But today, food insecurity is being seen as a health problem that impacts over 41 million people nationwide, with a financial toll estimated at $160 billion a year. Food insecurity has slowly declined over the last several years, but the scope of the problem–and its implications on the health of families and our communities–is continuing to garner increasing attention, especially across the healthcare in

***Update: 10/10/18*** Several of our Second Harvest Food Bank team members will be spending time in the eastern part of the state to assist with ongoing Hurricane Florence relief activities. Members of our staff will be head in different directions to assist our sister food banks, Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC and Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeastern NC in New Bern, Southern Pines, and Fayetteville through the end of the month. ***Update: 10/1/18*** Second Harvest F

To say they can set up this tent in the dark is not an analogy: it is literally what food bankers Joe Kilar and Michael Berry do with some frequency. Long before many of us are awake, they are unloading boxes, setting up tents, and, at this time of the year, trying to stay warm. It is Holiday Food Drive Season, when food bankers work with our wonderful supporters at WXII 12 News to harness the good will of our communities and collect much-needed food and funds for our work. D

This Veterans Day, we are each thinking of the veterans who have given so much to our great state and great nation. Unfortunately, too many veterans face poverty and food insecurity. Lavinia Jackson, a veteran advocate and poet based out of the Triad, issues this important reminder of difficult journey faced by many veterans and of our deep responsibility to serve those who served us. Veterans, no matter the branch, all begin with basic training. We take an oath and spend wee

It’s the type of community where you might well be told to “Turn by the oak tree up by the old Harris’ farm” by way of directions. Shady Grove United Methodist Church is surrounded by small residential neighborhoods and farm fields. And every 2nd Monday of the month, Shady Grove’s pastor and volunteers open the doors to the Shady Grove UMC Food Pantry and welcome their community in. Second Harvest works with and provides food to over 470 partner programs, many of which are ju

Last Thanksgiving, Crystal figured out how to cook turkey in a crockpot. The 300 square feet of their motel room was filled with the familiar smells of the holidays and for a moment felt like a home. She and her husband, Tom, enjoyed the meal on the bed, while their baby toddled around the room pushing a wagon of blocks. This was their second month in the motel. After losing an apartment where they lived with another couple, they moved into this motel near downtown Greensboro

In Watauga County, a young couple is homeless, unemployed and raising a two month old infant. They were living in the woods prior to finding pace in a local shelter, and the mother nearly lost her life after a C-section and improper after-care. She has been hospitalized for nearly the entire two months her child has been alive. In Caldwell County, an older woman worked her entire career in a manufacturing plant and is now in poor health. She sees seven doctors on a regular ba

Ana Atwater stands in the doorway of Hinshaw United Methodist Church in Greensboro, propping the door with her foot. She warmly greets families as they arrive with a broad smile that sets the tone for the evening: “We are here to learn from each other, to enjoy in fellowship and to eat.” Half an hour later,