Jason Kanawati Stephany of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina on food insecurity

NC Newsline

This year’s election may have come and gone, but one thing that hasn’t gone anywhere in North Carolina this year is hunger. Especially since congressional Republicans blocked the reauthorization of some key social safety net programs that led to great success during the pandemic, food insecurity has expanded to the point at which more than 560,000 people in our region alone fit this troubling description.

And with the recent devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, things have been even more dire in western North Carolina – a fact that has led the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina to ship truckloads of goods to the mountains. Earlier this week, we learned more about this effort, the work of the food bank more generally and the need for average folks to become anti-hunger advocates in a conversation with the food bank’s Vice President of Communications and Public Policy, Jason Kanawati Stephany.

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This is a rebroadcast of our interview that originally aired on November 10, 2024.