Greensboro Grasshoppers Step Up to Help GUM Food Pantry:Baseball Team Donates $5,000 to Help Restock Shelves, Encourage Giving
GREENSBORO, N.C. – With less than a week’s supply of food on the shelves, Greensboro Urban Ministry’s executive director turned to the community for help on Monday afternoon. On Wednesday, Greensboro Grasshoppers President and General Manager Donald Moore delivered a home run.
The Hoppers presented Greensboro Urban Ministry (GUM) with a check for $5,000 to purchase needed food items immediately.
“Hunger and food insecurity create a terrible need in our community, and we thought it was the right thing to do to get involved and encourage others to step up so that our neighbors who need food can continue to receive help,” Moore said Wednesday afternoon. “This donation – and the tremendous support it represents – is such a blessing to the households who are counting on food assistance to make ends meet,” said Rev. Myron W. Wilkins, GUM executive director. “We are thankful and grateful for the Grasshoppers’ quick and generous response.”
The Greensboro Grasshoppers are a key partner in GUM and Church World Service’s annual CROP Hunger Walk.
Greensboro Urban Ministry’s Food Pantry is the largest local resource for men, women and families who lack adequate access to food. Requests for assistance continue to increase. In the first 12 business days in January, GUM distributed 49,686 pounds of food through emergency assistance food bags, compared with 59,132 pounds for the entire month of January 2016.
GUM distributed 1,058,152 pounds of food to the community in 2016 through the food pantry and Potter’s House Community Kitchen, which serves lunch daily to anyone in the community who is hungry. The majority of the food, 759,737 pounds, was distributed through the food pantry to men, women and families with children needing food assistance. GUM assisted 38,429 individuals and 20,947 households with food assistance in 2016.
About Greensboro Urban Ministry
Greensboro Urban Ministry, since 1967, has worked to share the love of God with people in need through practical action. The agency’s work centers on several programs: emergency financial and food assistance to help households avoid eviction; shelter for men and women at Weaver House and families at Pathways Center; daily lunch in Potter’s House Community Kitchen; and case management and financial assistance to support men, women and families moving back into permanent housing.
Please learn more about Greensboro Urban Ministry by visiting our website: www.greensborourbanministry.org.
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Lane Harvey Brown
Development and Communications Director, Greensboro Urban Ministry
labrown@guministry.org
www.greensborourbanministry.org
Katie Dannemiller
Vice President of Baseball Operations, Greensboro Grasshoppers
katie@gsohoppers.com
www.gsohoppers.com