1.7 million meals donated smashes goal for ABC11 Together Food Drive

Wednesday was the final day of the ABC11 Together Annual Food Drive and our push to donate 1.3 million meals was a success!

With your help, we received a total of 1.7 million meals!

The food drive aims to provide food for the hungry by giving to Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeast NC. We're partnering with Food Lion and US Foods to help restock the shelves.





Rick Ramos is an experienced pro at donating to the ABC11 Together Food Drive. This is his 32nd year doing so.

This year, he donated so much food, he had to borrow an SUV to transport it all to the drop-off location.



Sheba Smith of Durham got up early and made one of the first donations at our Durham drop-off location.

"I wanted to give back," Smith explained. "I've been truly blessed this year, and I know there are people out there who don't have it. This is a way of giving back and making sure people get what they need. So I was more than happy to help out here."



As of 5 p.m. the Durham Food Lion said more than 24,000 pounds of food have been donated.

ABC11 was at Food Lion stores in Raleigh (1121 Falls River Avenue), Durham (4711 Hope Valley Road) and Fayetteville (151 Westwood Shopping Center) throughout the day.



Need to know what to donate? Check out the food bank's most needed items list.