{"id":32697,"date":"2026-09-26T16:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T16:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/32697\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T16:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T16:05:16","slug":"food-fight-nc-help-stop-summer-hunger-for-kids-and-families-in-central-eastern-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/32697\/","title":{"rendered":"Food fight NC | Help stop summer hunger for kids and families in central, eastern North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

For households facing food insecurity, summer break can bring added stress as parents and caregivers work to replace the meals children normally receive at school.<\/p>\n

With many schools still closed, families are trying to provide at least 10 additional meals each week for every child in their household. That extra burden comes as food pantries and meal programs continue responding to historic levels of need across central and eastern North Carolina.<\/p>\n

The good news is there’s still time to help.<\/p>\n

Click here to donate and help Stop Summer Hunger for local kids: Now – July 31.<\/p>\n

Through July 31, every dollar donated will be matched (up to $100,000), which doubles the impact of every gift thanks to generous Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC partners.<\/p>\n

So far, the Stop Summer Hunger campaign has helped provide more than 5 million meals towards its goal of 7 million meals before the campaign ends.<\/p>\n

According to the latest research, more than 607,000 people across North Carolina lack consistent access to nutritious food, including more than 168,000 school-age children and teens. That means one in five children in our communities may not know where their next meal will come from.<\/p>\n

Food Bank leaders say the crisis has been fueled by reductions in state and federal support programs, combined with rising costs for food, housing, and fuel.<\/p>\n

Top Stories<\/p>\n

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Despite these challenges, a network of more than 700 local organizations is working to ensure children and families have access to nutritious meals throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

Families seeking food assistance and community members interested in supporting local hunger-relief efforts can find available resources and ways to get involved here on their website.<\/p>\n

ABC11 is proud to partner with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC on its Stop Summer Hunger campaign.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For households facing food insecurity, summer break can bring added stress as parents and caregivers work to replace the meals children normally receive at school. With many schools still closed, families are trying to provide at least 10 additional meals each week for every child in their household. That extra burden comes as food pantries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28090,3027,3025,3023,3026,3024],"class_list":["post-32697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-carolina","tag-28090","tag-north-carolina","tag-north-carolina-dining","tag-north-carolina-food","tag-north-carolina-grocery-stores","tag-north-carolina-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117338198749043161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}