EDWARD — A $10,000 grant to Eagle’s Wings Food Pantry from the Louise R. Lester Foundation will be used to help the organization continue its mission of serving the hungry in Edward and Aurora.

“It’s a very underserved area of the county,” Montague said. “The people that we serve down there don’t have transportation. They can’t get here (to Washington). The ones that we’re serving, most of them, I would say 95 percent, are just living on social security or disability.”

Eagle’s Wings South, as the ministry is called, costs approximately $28,000 to administer each year, serving somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 families every month. Since many of these clients lack transportation, the staff and volunteers at Eagle’s Wings go to them. On the first, second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, the group loads up vans with food, a wireless hotspot and computers and hits the road for the south side of the river.

“Every Wednesday, I go shopping for fresh produce to bring down on Thursday,” Montague said. “Sometimes it’s the only fresh produce they have all month.”

With no grocery store in the area, the Aurora/Edward area is considered a food desert under U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.

“It’s so needed because that is such an ignored part of the county,” Montague said.

In addition to regular distributions each Tuesday at the pantry’s location on West Third Street, Eagle’s Wings South operates from 10 a.m. to noon at Edward Christian Church the first Thursday of the month, at Mallard Creek Apartments on the second Thursday and Aurora United Methodist Church on the fourth Thursday.

As for receiving the grant, Montague expressed gratitude for the contribution. As a nonprofit, the organization is constantly looking for funding sources, and the grant will allow Eagle’s Wings to continue and build onto its mission in southern Beaufort County.

While these monies from the Louise R. Lester Foundation will cover more than one-third of the cost of Eagle’s Wings South, the organization always welcomes donations. The nonprofit has just begun its annual holiday outreach. Anyone wishing to contribute to Eagle’s Wings can donate online at www.eagles-wings.org or by sending checks to P.O. Box 426, Washington, NC, 27889.

For more information about the Louise R. Lester Foundation, visit www.lrlfoundation.org.