Food Bank of the Albemarle will be able to provide an additional 150,000 meals across its 15-county service territory thanks to a second $50,000 donation from Publix Super Markets’ charitable arm.
The Food Bank said in a press release Monday, Sept. 23, that the donation made by Publix Super Markets Charities will help it respond to a 16% increase over the past year in the number of “food-insecure” residents in its large service area.
According to the Food Bank, the rising costs of housing, food and medicines have “greatly impacted” residents in the region, increasing the number of those facing food insecurity from 36,000 in 2023 to more than 43,000 now. That’s one in seven residents in the 15 counties, including one in four children, the Food Bank said.
Liz Reasoner, executive director of Food Bank of the Albemarle, said Publix Super Markets Charities’ $50,000 gift will provide a big boost to the agency’s hunger relief efforts.
“Rising inflation and the cost of food are having a tremendous impact on the neighbors we serve,” she said. “This grant will enable us to continue to source the freshest produce, lean protein, and culturally responsive foods for everyone in our region.”
The $50,000 grant is actually the second in as many years the charitable arm of the Lakeland, Florida-based grocery chain has provided Food Bank of the Albemarle. Last year, Publix Super Market Charities gave the Food Bank $50,000 to help it purchase a 28-foot refrigerated trailer. The agency said the trailer is used to distribute millions of additional pounds of fresh produce.
McVeigh earns Girl Scouts Bronze Award for library projectGirl Scout Junior Mikayla McVeigh of Camden recently earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest honor for Girl Scouts at McVeigh’s grade level.
McVeigh, a member of Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast Troop 105, earned the award by creating a “little library” in the barracks housing at U.S. Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City. McVeigh titled the lending library project, “The Tiny Escape Book Library.”
According to a press release, the project involved collecting books and creating a “welcoming reading space for guests.”
“My dad is currently in a schoolhouse barracks,” McVeigh said in the release. “It is hard to bring extra entertainment. I want to provide books so they (Coasties in the barracks) aren’t bored so they can be happy and entertained.”
A Coast Guard volunteer will organize the library and maintain its inventory of books, the release said.
PCI officers, offenders donate $1K-plus to school supply driveDozens of correctional staff and an inmate group at Pasquotank Correctional Institute collected more than $1,000 in school supplies for donation to the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools this summer.
The Men’s Club, a group of inmates who work “to improve their character and give back to the community,” collected $500 worth of school supplies for the effort, adding to what the prison staff collected, a release from the prison facility states. Then on Aug. 22, PCI Warden Daniel Everett, accompanied by members of the prison’s staff, delivered the collected supplies to H.L. Trigg Community School Principal Chris Paulett.
The four-week school supply drive by PCI staff and The Men’s Club was part of the 2024 Governor’s School Supply Drive. According to the release, state agencies “were challenged to give back to the communities” in which they operate around the state. The ECPPS school district was selected for the drive by PCI staff based on need and because it’s in the county where the prison is located. The N.C. Department of Adult Correction participated in the drive from July 24 to Aug. 18.
Ferguson earns travel marketing certification from Tourism SocietyCAMDEN — Tara Ferguson, assistant director at the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, recently earned her certification as a travel marketing professional after completing a three-year program offered by the Southeast Tourism Society Marketing College.
Ferguson was among 81 STS Marketing College graduates in the Class of 2024 announced at the STS Connections Conference in Auburn, Alabama, earlier this month.
STS students study a range of topics, including tourism advertising, syndicated research, crisis management, special events marketing, media relations, heritage tourism, tourism sales and community/rural tourism. In addition to classroom work, students must complete projects that relate to their employment. The classes are taught by travel and tourism industry professionals.
Ferguson, who helps manage the daily operations of the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, thanked the STS board, staff and the college’s instructors for helping her make “invaluable connections and expanding/enhancing my knowledge in tourism marketing.”
“Without the support of Camden County Commissioners, Camden TDA Board, and most of all Sarah Hill and our Dismal Swamp Welcome Center family, this would not have been possible,” she said.
Besides working with Hill and the Tourism Development Authority Board and county officials to promote tourism in Camden, Ferguson also assists with events like Paddle for the Border, Dismal Day, Juneteenth and the Camden Heritage Festival.
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