Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Mary Junell | Staff Sgt. Felipe Godinez, assigned to the North Carolina Army National Guard’s C...... read more read more
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North Carolina National Guard Soldiers and Airmen worked with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeastern North Carolina during a drive-thru food distribution event at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Nov. 24, 2020.
The team of 27 Soldiers and Airmen came from multiple units across the state and are part of the 177 Guardsmen who were activated in September to continue supporting the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the Department of Health and Human Services during their response to COVID-19.
A large-scale distribution like this was not a simple task, and David Griffin, an emergency services administrator for the food bank, said he was thankful for the Guard’s support.
“We couldn’t do it without the North Carolina National Guard,” Griffin said. “Without them and their expertise in logistics and things of that nature, we couldn’t do the job we are able to do.”
The Guardsmen worked with other volunteers to unload trucks, moved pallets of food with a forklift, divided produce into boxes, directed traffic, and loaded food into vehicles.
Although the large event was a challenge, 2nd Lt. Hunter Maynor, assigned to the North Carolina Army National Guard’s 236th Brigade Engineering Battalion, 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, said he genuinely enjoyed supporting the food bank.
“I just commissioned about two months ago, so this was my first experience ever, and I signed up for this because I knew how important it was,” Maynor said. “We live in this community too. We care about our neighbors too, and we want to help.”
Maynor, who graduated from N.C. State University in May, was born only five minutes from where the food distribution took place.
“You hear about all the things we do abroad, but I don’t think we shine enough spotlight on what the guard does at home, especially during times of crisis,” Maynor said. “This probably means the most to me because I get to help my own community; I was born and raised here.”
The event came two days before the Thanksgiving holiday and is the largest food distribution in Cumberland County to date, handing out food to more than 1300 families in the span of a few hours.
Although the food bank gets food from multiple sources, the 70,000 pounds of food about for this distribution was bought to ensure families could have a Thanksgiving meal.
“We purchased food specifically to make sure we do stuff for the holidays because we understand, at these holiday times, the value of sitting across the table and having a meal with your family,” Griffin said. “It’s even more important these days when you have all this COVID-19 going, you’re afraid, you might not have the resources, so to provide to a family the meals and food they need is important to us.”
Each family received a mixed produce box, a bunch of collard greens, a frozen hen, and a holiday box with items specific to a holiday meal, like cranberry sauce.
In addition to this food distribution, the team of Guardsmen have worked in the food bank’s warehouse, supported 20 other food distributions, delivered over 1000 meals for Cumberland County students and 1000 more meals to senior citizens.
Capt. Phanat Senesourinh, with the North Carolina Air National Guard’s 156th Airlift Squadron, 145th Airlift Wing, said altogether the team has helped process more than 1.5 million pounds of food through the food bank.
He also said that the Soldiers and Airmen on the team welcomed the opportunity to serve.
“They do it because they want to do it,” Senesourinh said. “They have a passion for it, just to serve in any aspect, regardless if it's for the country or the community. I’ve worked with them for two months now, and I can contest that all these [service] members are out here on their own accord because they want to serve the community and serve their country.”
The North Carolina National Guard began supporting the COVID-19 response on March 6, 2020. Since then, Soldiers and Airmen have supported the distribution of more than 6.3 million food bank meals, helping communities across the state.
| Date Taken: | 11.24.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.25.2020 14:02 |
| Story ID: | 383836 |
| Location: | FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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