Established in 1980, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is a non-profit organization that provides food to people at risk of hunger in 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina. In 2008-09, the Food Bank distributed over 36.8 million pounds of food through 800 partner agencies including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and after school programs for children.

Sadly, hunger remains a serious problem in central and eastern North Carolina. Over 480,000 people in the Food Bank's 34-county service area struggle each day. Nearly 34 percent of the people served by the Food Bank’s network are children, and another 11 percent are elderly. Thirty-eight percent of the families served are the “working poor” – people who work hard and still have to choose between eating and other basic necessities such as medicine and housing.

The Food Bank operates 5 branch warehouses: a primary facility in Raleigh and warehouses in Durham, Greenville, Wilmington and Southern Pines. Click here for locations, hours and contact phone numbers.

Mission

The mission of the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is to harness and supply resources so that no one goes hungry in central and eastern North Carolina.

Strategies to achieve this mission include:

- efficiently distributing high quality foods and non-food essentials to nonprofit agencies that serve the hungry - strengthen the agencies directly responsible for distributing food and non-food items.
- extend Food Bank services to underserved communities within our service area
- advocate ways to eliminate hunger
- grow our financial resources in order to achieve our mission

Our History

The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina was founded in 1980 as the Community Food Bank, the first food bank in the state. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina provided start-up funds prompted by its concern about an increasing problem of homelessness and hunger in Raleigh and its surrounding communities.

Since its founding, the Food Bank has expanded services in an attempt to keep pace with a growing demand for emergency food, distributing more than 236 million pounds of food in the process. In 1984, the Food Bank gained affiliation with Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest).

On three separate occasions, the Food Bank has outgrown warehouse space. In 1985, the organization distributed just under 1 million pounds of food to a network of nearly 100 agencies. In 1996, distribution rose to 6.5 million pounds of food to a family of 480 private, emergency feeding programs and sister food banks (1 million pounds of which was disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Fran).

Nineteen ninety nine brought Hurricane Floyd to eastern North Carolina, and with it, the Food Bank's largest distribution ever. The devastation caused by the flooding after Hurricane Floyd was identified as the worst ever in North Carolina's history. The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina distributed 18.8 million pounds of food in fiscal year 1999-2000. Last fiscal year, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina distributed 36.8 million pounds of food.

Today, the Food Bank provides more than 141,000 pounds of food every day to 800 nonprofit, community-based, emergency feeding programs (soup kitchens, food pantries, homeless shelters, and elderly nutrition programs), serving more than 480,000 individuals at risk of hunger in 34 central and eastern North Carolina counties. The agencies are served out of a primary facility in Raleigh and branch warehouses in Southern Pines, Durham, Greenville and Wilmington.