Perdue Farm’s foundation donates to Second Harvest Food Bank

Second Harvest Food Bank’s school-based mobile pantry at Winecoff Elementary in Concord got a boost Monday when Perdue Farms’ donated a truck load of chicken to the agency for redistribution.

That comes to 10,000 pounds of chicken for families at the high-need school. It’s the first school-based mobile pantry Second Harvest Food Bank has launched in Cabarrus County, where Perdue has operations.

At Winecoff Elementary was chosen for a pantry because 92.4 percent of students are part of the free-reduced lunch program, officials said. In Cabarrus County overall, 17 percent of the child population lives in Cabarrus County at or below the poverty level, representing more than 8,600 children.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina supports eight Child Hunger programs with food in Cabarrus County, including six Backpack Programs and two Kids Café Programs.

Additional mobile pantries are scheduled to open in Cabarrus County this school year, the agency said. School-based mobile pantries deliver staple pantry items, as well as meat, fresh bread, produce and often eggs and juice to 200 to 250 children and their families in need.

Pantry visitors receive about a week’s worth of groceries helping to stretch a family’s budget.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina – serves 19 counties in North and South Carolina. In the past fiscal year, it distributed almost 46 million pounds of food and essential household items to nearly 650 hunger feeding agencies.

Agencies served include emergency pantries, soup kitchens, senior programs, shelters and low-income daycares.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Perdue Farm’s foundation donates to Second Harvest Food Bank."