01/10/2024
URGENT UPDATE (SHARE!): National Guard delivering our food boxes to folks that haven't eaten in 4 days. PLEASE DONATE: https://feedingaveryfamilies.org/support-faf .
We have never seen devastation like this. We delivered 90 food boxes to Temple Baptist Church (Green Valley), 65 boxes to the Frank area (off 19E), and 23 boxes to families showing up today. Some of you have dropped by the building to see what’s happening. The building is great. We have power and water now – hooray!
How can you help? Our primary food source, MANNA FoodBank in Asheville, was destroyed. Working with relief agencies for help for bulk deliveries.
If you are local and can get to the FAF building, we are packing boxes at 10:00am-12:00pm or 2:00-4:00pm ET on Tuesday, October 1. We need to pack as many boxes as possible since we are now a secondary food storage site for emergency crews. The National Guard also delivered 2 trucks of food and supplies today.
• Local volunteers, BEFORE you arrive at FAF please check with your neighbors to see if you can bring them a box of food and supplies. We are helping the county track the community needs, and we will send these boxes with you.
• When you arrive, we will ask each volunteer to share your name and location. This will help us know how many volunteers we have and potentially distribute food with you and your neighborhood. Please do not just show up and start helping without checking in first. Vanessa Phillips and Sally Loftis of Feeding Avery Families will be onsite to organize and manage the process.
• Volunteer jobs (only if you live locally since many roads out) will include loading boxes onto pallets, unloading food & supplies, stocking shelves, removing trash, assembling and cutting boxes, receiving donations, and loading boxes into cars. We will provide training for volunteers at the beginning of each shift.
Current donation needs if you are nearby to drop off: water bottles (boil advisory here), manual can openers, adult diapers, diapers, baby formula, plastic utensils, and non-perishable foods such as cans with pop tops and boxed milk. Most people do not have access to power or water, so please keep that in mind when purchasing supplies. You can drop these by Feeding Avery Families when we are open. If we are not there, please deliver these to First Baptist Church in Newland.
And of course, you can donate to Feeding Avery Families via PayPal at https://feedingaveryfamilies.org/support-faf . And we will need your continued support as MANNA Food Bank in Asheville (our main food supplier) will not be available for some time. So we will have to buy food from other places with potentially higher prices.