Food insecurity is a big topic in the state of North Carolina. People working full-time jobs are living on a small budget and cannot afford a healthy, active life. Carolina Technical Plastics Corp., located in New Bern, wants to help these people by donating 6,000 USD to the local branch of Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
Round about 300,000 children in Central and East Carolina will neither get a thanksgiving turkey dinner, nor will they have any food on their plate for this special occasion. Food insecurity has emerged as a defined reality for hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans who still cannot keep food on the table.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Established in 1980, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is a nonprofit organization that has provided food for people at risk of hunger for over 35 years. Working with a network of over 200 nonprofit community agency partners, the Food Bank CENC distributes millions of pounds of food products, fresh vegetables and fruits, and meats yearly to local partner agencies, such as soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and programs for children and adults in order to supplement household budgets of people struggling to make daily choices between paying rent, repairing an auto to get to work, buying medicine, or purchasing food. Supported by wholesalers, retailers and grocery chains all over the region, who donate the food, the Food Bank tries to lower the expenses these people spend on groceries by providing cheap food to local distributers.
Carolina Technical Plastics Corp.
Carolina Technical Plastics (CTP) is a company within the worldwide acting Wirthwein-group. Celebrating its 15 year anniversary in the upcoming year, it started its operations in 2003 with location in Craven County Industrial Park in New Bern, North Carolina. The state-of-art plant in New Bern is producing plastic components for the business units automotive, railway and home appliances and currently has round about 150 employees.
In the past four years the family owned business Wirthwein donated money to different projects around the world, instead of giving presents to their business partners and customers. All these projects have in common, that they are located close to one of the company’s plants and have a focus on social, charitable aspects or education. All plant managers are asked in November to provide ideas for the annual Christmas donation. This year, Jason Kinnear, Jennifer Seals and Lorrie Hardison of Carolina Technical Plastics Corp. proposed the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. “Many people cannot imagine how it is to be starving - to don’t know how you are going to afford food for your children. The fact that more than 59,000 people in this region live in insecure households brought us to an easy decision. We want to support the food bank.“, says plant manager Jason Kinnear. CTP is supporting the Food Bank in New Bern with a donation of 6000 USD.
Food Bank New Bern
In year 2016, the New Bern branch of Food Bank distributed more than 7 million pounds of food to local partner agencies. People close to or below poverty line, more than a third of whom are children, suffer from food insecurity, are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food, or go hungry because they have to skip meals. Many of the affected people work at minimum-wage jobs, often have two or more part-time jobs and receive no health insurance or other benefits. In defiance of a low unemployment in the New Bern area, many people do not earn enough to afford an adequate lifestyle. The Food Bank works as a distributer, who accepts food that is in perfect condition but cannot be commercialized by supermarkets, retailers or grocery chains and gives it to needy people through charitable projects. Additional to external food suppliers, the New Bern branch of the Food Bank has its own community garden. Last year they provided 7500 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to the local community. Volunteers help by providing their time and knowledge. Projected on the last year they donated nearly 4,500 hours, which is equivalent to approximately two full time employees. They assist the Food Banks staff to repack bulk food items, become advocates for the Food Bank, attend fundraising events and organize food drives. The New Bern branch of Food Bank is pleased about the big donation and thanked Carolina Technical Plastics Corp. for their social commitment.
