Food bank kicks off summer campaign

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- More than 1,000 volunteers packed meals for children in need at the NC State Fairgrounds Thursday morning.

Sort-A-Rama kicked off the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina's "Stop Summer Hunger" initiative.

The goal is to provide 3.5 million meals to children during the summer.

"We know when kids are in school, they participate in the free or reduced meal program," said Earline Middleton, of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. "But happens when they're out of school? Many of them will go to camps. Many of them may not be able to."

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"If you think about the summer, it's actually a very complicated period because kids are out of school and normally they rely on that meal that they have in school during the school year," said Octavio Soares, BASF's North America Director of Operations. "During the summer, they're not having that. The food bank helps supplement by providing these bag lunches."

The volunteers packed more than 200,000 meals, working for companies such as Cisco, RTI International, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, BASF, and Food Lion.

"We have over 225 volunteers here today and simultaneously, we're doing the same event in Charlotte and for the first time in Fayetteville so we have three going on today," said Mike Hall, Food Lion Director of Operations. "We have over 500 associates volunteering their time today."

Sort-A-Rama goes on every summer.