NC state Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) in black shirt helps volunteers fill boxes at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina in Raleigh on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (Photo: Geg Childress/NC Newsline)
At Health and Nutritional Development Empowered Education, a Christian-based food assistance program in Spring Lake, there’s been a noticeable uptick in military families seeking help to put food on the table, said Renee Gregory, the program’s leader.
“It has increased treNC food banks can’t fill the hunger gap caused by federal cuts, state and nonprofit leaders saymendously in what people are needing,” Gregory said. “They need food, and we’re right down from Fort Bragg, so back in the past, soldiers, they didn’t need to come get food, but now we have lines and lines and lines of soldiers waiting to receive food as well.”
At the same time that the number of military families coming in has increased, Gregory said, there has been a dramatic decrease in Hispanic families visiting the nonprofit…