A continuing partnership between the North Carolina division of USDA Farm Service Agency and the Food Bank of the Albemarle is helping fight hunger in Beaufort County. The agencies hope to draw attention to this issue by networking with farmers who wish to donate excess food.

The FSA’s Strikeforce Initiative for Rural Growth and Opportunity is a coordinated effort to increase economic opportunities and address the needs to rural communities suffering from persistent poverty said Bob Etheridge, State Executive Director of the North Carolina Division of the USDA Farm Service Agency. Through programs like the Strikeforce Initiative, the USDA networks to connect food banks with excess crops from farmers.

“We subsidize ourselves in order to network and disperse food to those in need,” Etheridge said. “At the end of the day, it’s about people, and programs like this allow farmers to share when they have excess. It’s about people bringing resources together to help one another.”

On July 22, Etheridge, representatives of the Beaufort-Hyde FSA office, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development Office joined Eagles’ Wings Director Ann Marie Montague and volunteers at the food pantry to lend a helping hand in its operations by sorting food and assisting clients in need of food aid.

Etheridge said the agency identifies Beaufort County and 19 others as “Strikeforce” counties. These counties are identified as having a certain level of poverty, which includes shortages in food. Etheridge said this is the second year North Carolina has been involved in the program.

“When you look at food shortages, they are in rural counties even though most of the food is produced there,” Etheridge said. “A lot of that is due to a change in the culture of agriculture. Here, food banks are linking up farmers that want to provide food to local food pantries.”

Beaufort-Hyde County FSA Executive Director Leigh Anna Hester said the excess food from farmers is received several different ways. A process called gleaning, in which local organizations working under the food bank, like churches, volunteer their time to pick excess crops, is one way the food is taken to the food banks. Other ways include farmers dropping off bins of excess crops to the food bank, which is then dispersed to local food pantries like Eagles’ Wings.

“By partnering with them (USDA), we are hoping it makes it easier for people to donate,” Hester said. “If they can make it that much easier to bring produce to them (food banks) or for them to pick it up, that’s helping out a lot. In our case, we are pretty much hooking up that producer with the food bank so some of these producers who did not know the food bank took fresh produce, can donate.”

Etheridge said the program would not work without the volunteers, like those who give their time to operate the local food pantries.

“In all honesty, we couldn’t do it without the volunteers,” Etheridge said. “They are the heart and soul of this.”

Eagles’ Wings logged 14,000 volunteer hours in 2013, serving 5,800 families, according to Montague. Volunteers at the food pantry take care of its weekly operations such as warehouse needs, deliveries for its homebound program and pickups from stores like Walmart and Food Lion, who donate their excess food. Local businesses like them donate excess food that will soon expire and instead of sending it to the Food Bank of the Albemarle and then back to Eagles’ Wings, volunteers pick it up locally to save time, Montague said.

“The USDA is trying to build on what they’ve started,” Montague said. “They want to draw more attention to get local farmers to participate. I thought it was wonderful to see this group come in. Two of the gentlemen stayed all day and worked in the warehouse. They were very hands-on in learning and appreciating how we function.”