MONROE, N.C. — Many in North Carolina are socially distancing themselves at home these days, leading to smaller paychecks if any at all. Meanwhile, the bills keep coming. It's why food pantries across the Carolinas are seeing record turn-out from folks seeking help for the first time.
It didn't take long for a vacant lot in Monroe to transform into an express lane of blessings.
"Bananas, oranges, apples, potatoes, onions cereal, granola everyone gets a gallon of milk," said Kara Lopp, Common Heart Spokesperson.
Everyone, that is, who flooded into a vacant Monroe lot and answered a few questions.
"We have a lot of families that are saying this is the first time they've had to come to a food pantry," Lopp said.
Common Heart, a Union County charity group, normally feeds 150 people at a mobile food pantry like this. But in the age of coronavirus, demand had more than doubled. With so many breadwinners out of work, organizers of this mobile pantry knew this would be a big one. Now, they say it was their biggest ever.
Lopp said everyone who took home groceries was grateful.
"I have been getting a lot of smiles a lot of thank-yous, excited to able to get the free food they so desperately need," Lopp said. "You can tell there's a lot of sadness among people who have just lost jobs and not really sure what they're gonna do."
Those with Common Heart say they know what they're going to do: feed anyone and everyone that rolls up to one of their pantries.
One elderly woman, who didn't want to give her name, beamed behind a homemade mask.
"Well, they sent us a text and said anybody needed food to come out here today," she said. "I drove out here I live in Stallings I'm a senior by myself, I'm a widow and God has helped me today."
That, organizers say, is exactly the idea.
If you'd like to help out, you can go to CommonHeart.org, where they say they'll turn your $25 donation into enough food to feed a family of four for a week.
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