CHARLOTTE, N.C. — WCNC Charlotte is shining a light on food insecurity in the University City community of Charlotte.
We are taking a close look at the great work being done at Camino Community Center, which is located near the University of North Carolina Charlotte in northeast Charlotte.
Camino is an organization that does amazing multi-cultural outreach to the people in this city, one such program is their food pantry.
By the numbers, Camino served 23,248 people who needed food. That's a 300% increase from 2019 to 2020.
You can help the Camino Community Center make a difference in our community.
“We are able to help anybody and everybody, but we are unique in that we can help the Latino community because we are a bilingual organization,” public relations manager Paola Garcia said.
Charlotte is among the 20 largest cities in the nation -- a wealth capital, banking capital and home to many large corporate headquarters. Hunger shouldn’t happen anywhere, least of all in the shadow of Uptown.
“You don’t need to feel embarrassed to come in here and ask for help, we are here to help you in any way that we can,” Garcia said.
Camino serves the university community with health services and their food pantry, last year giving out 1,042,350 pounds of food with a need that seems to grow every year.
This charity makes a difference, in 2020, almost 42,000 people took advantage of the services they offer, that’s up 25,000 from the year before.