Make a Difference Food Pantry 10 Years Old!

Make A Difference Food Pantry recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary on April 18. Organizations gathered from across Eastern NC to reflect and celebrate the contributions MAD PANTRY has made not only to Wayne county but across the country.

The pantry provides food to those not only experiencing food insecurities but those affected by disasters. Since their beginning in a fellowship hall of Black Jack church they have relocated due to growth twice and once due to flooding. They have become a food distribution site for Eastern NC currently serving 31 other organizations, have 7 outreach pantries in 6 NC counties, a soup kitchen, a mobile disaster feeding unit, a clothes closet, a kids feeding program and a senior feeding program.

The MAD PANTRY served over 50,000 meals during Hurricanes Matthew, Florence, Harvey in TX, TN wildfires and NC tornadoes. Founder, Kenzie Hinson’s goal was to have a warehouse, soup kitchen and be a food distribution site and through donors, volunteers and lots of prayer it was achieved before she even got her driver’s license. To date the pantry has distributed a little over 15 million meals since its beginning. Kenzie says she is extremely grateful and humbled that she and her team has been able to make such an impact not only in her community but throughout the country.

Miss Hinson says she hopes that she inspires others to follow God’s plan for their lives. The pantry will continue to “stop hunger one meal, one family at a time.”