LELAND, N.C. -- The Leland Police Department and the Leland Fire and Rescue had a friendly competition to see who could collect the most non-perishable items.

  • Brunswick Family Assistance says they help about 33,000 individuals each year
  • The organization helps low income families
  • The organization says they had an additional 17,000 people to help during the week of the hurricane

Everything collected goes to Brunswick Family Assistance, a non-profit that helps low-income families. The organization also stepped in to coordinate major Hurricane Florence relief in the county.

 

 

Executive director of Brunswick Family Assistance, Stephanie Bowen, says food drives like this one help in a big way.

"When people in our community come together to do food drives for us, that means that we don't have to utilize other resources to buy food and that makes a huge difference because we're able to, again, maintain those levels of services and even higher levels of services," said Bowen.

 

 

Bowen says in an average year they help about 33,000 individuals. In the week following Florence 17,000 addition people needed their help. Leland Fire Rescue Batallion Chief Amy Burton says they're happy to contribute in this way.

"With the time of Hurricane Florence, we kind of 'deplenished' our resources," said Burton," So, we need to fill everything back up, and what better to get people to give donations than a big fire truck."

Lieutenant Jeremy Humphries with the police department said has similar sentiments.

"Their vehicle is a lot bigger than ours of course, and we hope to take in more food than they do this year," said Humphries. "But, you know, at the end of the day it's about Brunswick Family Assistance and they're going to be our winners."

Together, Leland Police and Fire Rescue raised 3,110 pounds of food and over $4,000 for Brunswick Family Assistance. 

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