The Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, in partnership with Food Lion and MANNA Food Bank, will be passing out free holiday meal supplies for 1,500 families on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Anyone seeking supplies should join the car line at the N.C. Agricultural Center’s Gate 1 (1301 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher) no earlier than 11 a.m. that day. Distribution will last from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
“They will get a holiday ham and a holiday themed food box, whole hams, essentials, and also produce boxes as well as some pies and other other goodies for the holiday season,” Micah Chrisman, MANNA’s Director of Marketing and Communications, told the Hendersonville Times-News Dec. 12.
Chrisman said that Food Lion was providing the food and that Charlotte-based Second Harvest typically operates outside of Western North Carolina but has been providing supplies since Tropical Storm Helene hit the region Sept. 27. MANNA’S facility in Asheville was destroyed by flooding from the Swannanoa River and the nonprofit secured a new warehouse in Mills River in October.
Chrisman said the need for food is so great that a similar turkey distribution event held at the Western North Carolina Farmers Market before Thanksgiving was shut down by transportation officials right at its end time because of traffic. He emphasized that anyone in need of food can always look at Manna’s Food Finder map online at mannafoodbank.org.
“We have a partner network of about 225 partner agencies,” Chrisman said. “These are like churches, shelters, food pantries, other kind of direct relief organizations. And we have food trucks that are going out daily, delivering food to these locations.”
MANNA was serving 158,000 people on average a month across its partner network last year, Chrisman said.
“Food insecurity has been an ongoing issue for several years, through the pandemic,” Chrisman said. Helene made it “a crisis within a crisis.”
Chrisman didn’t have exact numbers on how many people had been served since the storm, but said, “Going into the new year, we’re trying to build capacity with the understanding that we might be serving up to 250,000 people a month.”
Deirdra Funcheon covers Henderson, Polk and Transylvania Counties for the Hendersonville Times-News. Got a tip? Email her at DFuncheon@gannett.com.