SWAN QUARTER — A community project in Hyde County recently took what was thought to be damaged and turned it into a means of feeding the hungry.

Several weeks ago when Hurricane Arthur passed through eastern North Carolina, a crop of sweet corn was damaged and initially thought to be a partial loss. However, a group within the United Methodist Church Beacon District, covering northeastern North Carolina, partnered with the Food Bank of the Albemarle made use of the damaged crop, said Food Bank of the Albemarle Resource Development Director Steve Murray.

Murray said the food bank did not have the adequate staff or volunteers for the gleaning project so the Methodist group, with the know-how and the manpower, recruited volunteers to visit Tunnell Farms in Swan Quarter and gather the crops. Gleaning, as it’s called, involves a group harvesting surplus crops from a grower’s fields in order to distribute the food to the needy in the community. The food bank served as the networking organization that distributed the food to local pantries, Murray said.

“They’re out there doing the actual gleaning,” Murray said. “What they lack is a means of distribution. We’re both working together to get the food in the hands of the people that need it. Through our network, we take that product that they glean and we distribute it out to families in the area.”

During the project, as the volunteers gathered the corn into bins and boxes, FBA staff was onsite with trucks and the necessary resources to transport the harvested crops back to the food bank and distribute it throughout the areas it serves, Murray said. The FBA serves 15 counties in northeastern North Carolina, including Beaufort and Hyde. The partnership with the UMC Beacon District has been one of the first real organized gleaning projects in the area, Murray said.

“We’ll have it back out in the community a day or so after the gleaning project,” Murray said. “Once we get it, we reach out to partner agencies and ask if they’re able to handle it. They’ve got the capacity to get it in people’s hands while it’s still good.”

Tom and Christi Quance, of Elizabeth City, participated in the project on July 14, said Tom Quance. The pair has been a part of several gleaning projects headed up by the Beacon District, and Tom Quance also serves on the FBA board of directors. The group harvested over 3,000 pounds of corn during the project, which was dispersed to various food pantries throughout the region, Quance said.

“We have a lot of food in our district, and a lot of that food gets left in the field,” Quance said. “There’s a lot of hungry people and we try to make the effort to get that food to them. This is just one way to do it.”

Murray said Dick and Sandra Tunnell of Tunnell Farms has donated crops through gleaning projects before, but the most recent is the only one done this year through the food bank. The FBA operates three mobile food pantries in Hyde County, including Englehard, Swan Quarter and Scranton, all of which aid in feeding the hungry in the same area as Tunnell Farms.

“This is a way we can reach into places that do not have a traditional pantry,” Murray said. “That is how we distribute in Hyde County. The gleaning project is actually a great partnership. They (UMC Beacon District) are doing their mission work and it’s all very complementary to what we are doing. I think it works out well through a community effort.”

To donate to the Food Bank of the Albemarle or for more information, call Carolyn Anderson, Food Resource Coordinator, at 252-335-4035, ext. 114.