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Food Lion supports Fairgrove pantry      dated January 16, 2012

by Staff Writer: Eliot Duke The Thomasville Times

Picture of Food Lion presenting check to Terri

Charlie Byers, assistant manager at the Food Lion on Cloniger Drive, presents Terri Nelson, executive director of Fairgrove Family Resource Center, a check for $5,000.

Fairgrove Family Resource Center received $5,000 from the Food Lion on Cloniger Drive Wednesday morning as the two community partners continue their joint effort to feed those in need.

"We’re committed to doing whatever we can to help the community," said Charlie Byers, an assistant manager at Food Lion. "We want to do what we can to make sure everyone has food."

For Terri Nelson, the Center's executive director, the donation is well-timed and much-needed. Nelson said her agency is completely out of meat and more than 100 clients continue coming in every day.

"We can use that money to help buy food we don’t have right now," Nelson said. "We don’t have one pack of meat in the entire food center so we desperately need donations right now."

The Center recently moved to a larger facility at 159 Mrytle Drive after spending the past 16 years operating out of a doublewide trailer. While Nelson said donations were good in December, the need will continue throughout the year as the local economy struggles with high unemployment.

Donations often tail off in the wake of the holidays, but Nelson stresses that people are still in need of food.

"People are hungry 12 months out of the year that's what I hope folks will remember," said Nelson. "We did well in December, but the food we had donated is already gone. We had a family of six come in and were only able to give them a small box of canned food. That's just not good enough."

Nelson said people can help simply by picking up a few extra things at the grocery store.

Food Lion donates food to the nonprofit on a daily basis and Nelson said without the support of community partners, it would be impossible to help the growing number of people needing help.

"Support the grocery stores that support your community," Nelson said. "We had 127 clients come to us on [Tuesday]. We’ve never tried to help this many people."

For more information on about Fairgrove Family Resource Center, call 472-7217.

Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.


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