Local Food Pantry starting a new community center

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Thousands of families turned to food banks at the beginning of the pandemic. Job loss and lack of services contributed to the surge. But almost a year later, the need in the community is still growing.

For the only food pantry in the Highland Creek area, they saw record breaking numbers in 2020. In 2019, they served about 6,500 families. This year, they served more than 25,000 families.

Now they’re doing construction on a new project to help even more.

Local food bank see surge in people needing help.

“For something like to come out of this year, we keep saying we know there’s something bigger we’re supposed to be doing,” said Melody Leedy, the director of Hope Street Food Pantry.

Right now, the Hope Street Food Pantry is operating out of a small house next to their partner church. But in just a few months, they’re moving to much bigger facility on the same property. It’s being constructed right now.

“It’s a little disbelieving to know there are that many hungry people in our cities,” said Leedy after they served more than 25,000 families in 2020.

Hope Street Food Pantry is the only food bank in the 28269 zipcode. Leedy says the need in January and February has been steady even though most years the need for food is slower in the winter.

“We served a lot of people who were dealing with food insecurity for the first time,” she said.

The new community center is expected to be done in April or May. They hope it’s a resource to the community for many different things.

“There’s so many things we want to do through the community center,” she said. “We talked about doing financial literacy. Teaching clients to budget, balance a check book. Things like that, to further their path to wellness all around. Getting an apartment, making a down payment.”

But as construction continues they keep serving food each Thursday night from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“We’re still getting about 20-30 inquiries a week from people experiencing job loss. We’re just seeing a lot of need,” she said.

Homeless in Mecklenburg County

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Burpie is a stand-up comedian seen on MTV’s Wild n Out, Joking Off, Worldstar tv, Real Housewives of Atlanta, etc. He is also a radio personality on No Limit Larry and the Morning Maddhouse. He enjoys writing random Charlotte stories that he finds interesting or even bringing his comedy to the internet. He also writes about Charlotte sports. His life on a day to day is sometimes where he finds a lot of inspiration for his online content and on-air bits.

Local Food Pantry starting a new community center

Thousands of families turned to food banks at the beginning of the pandemic. Job loss and lack of services contributed to the surge. But almost a year later, the need…

Burpie

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