In a perfect world, Jane Cox and her co-workers at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina would achieve success by making their jobs obsolete. But with more than 400,000 people requiring assistance in the Food Bank's thirty-four county distribution area, Cox, the Food Bank's president and CEO, knows that there is still plenty of work to be done to address the growing needs of families struggling to get by.

"Sadly, hunger remains a serious problem," says Cox, noting that in 2006 the Food Bank distributed more than 31.4 million pounds of food through nearly 900 partner agencies. Nearly 30 percent of the people served by the Food Bank's network are children, she says, and another 18 percent are elderly.

Founded in 1980, the Food Bank has grown to include the central office in Raleigh as well as four other branch warehouses in Durham, Greenville, Southern Pines, and Wilmington. Cox says that the expansion has come about as a result of shifting demographic trends; in response to unexpected disasters, such as Hurricanes Floyd and Fran; and as a growing percentage of families find themselves struggling to make ends meet.

"Our primary goal is to deliver healthy, nutritious food to people in need on a regular and timely basis, while maintaining operational excellence throughout our organization," says Cox. The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is one of more than 200 food banks and food-rescue organizations in a network that comprises America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization. In addition to donations from corporations such as Kraft Foods and General Mills, America's Second Harvest also collects food and financial contributions from the U.S. government and individual donors. Building on what it receives from America's Second Harvest, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, and others like it, rely on donations from local and national businesses, church and civic groups, and private individuals to keep it running, as well as a steady stream of volunteers to help with distribution and outreach efforts.

In partnership with its network of agencies at the county and local level, the Food Bank provides wholesome food to after-school programs, emergency shelters, soup kitchens, senior citizen homes, and group homes for the disabled. Its initiatives include the Back-Pack Program, which supplies nutritional non-perishable foods to low-income children for weekend meals; and the Fresh Produce Recovery Program, which works with local grocery stores and vendors to distribute perishables that are healthful but not aesthetically uniform (apples or sweet potatoes with slight cosmetic flaws, for example). Being able to rely on the Food Bank allows its nonprofit affiliates to channel essential resources toward other programming, knowing that there will be food available for their participants.

Still, Cox notes that it's important to realize that the face of hunger is not easily defined. "Thirty-eight percent of the families we serve are the 'working poor,' people who work hard and still have to choose between eating and other basic necessities such as medicine and housing," she says. With the poverty threshold for a family of four at $20,000, Cox says that it's not unusual for the Food Bank's partner agencies to see families where one or both adults work, but still can't make ends meet. A recent poll of people seeking nutritional assistance in North Carolina revealed that 64 percent indicated that they would not have thought, three months earlier, that they would be at the point of needing help.

While overseeing its day-to-day operations, the Food Bank must be prepared to deal with the unexpected as well. In North Carolina, the devastation of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods has a ripple effect that is eventually felt most acutely with social service agencies. When Hurricane Floyd hit Eastern North Carolina in 1999, causing billions of dollars in damage, the Food Bank shifted into high gear to help. In one year's time, the Food Bank increased its food distribution by eleven million pounds of food - from nine to nineteen million - and at one point was operating twenty-four hours a day, five days a week.

"It's a rare organization that can serve as large a geographic territory as we do, and operate an intensive disaster-relief operation in one area while simultaneously maintaining our regular programs and efforts," says Cox. She says that longstanding support from organizations such as The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation helps her and her colleagues juggle many competing sets of priorities.

"Since 2000, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation has been a tremendous partner," she says. "Thanks to their support, we've been able to expand our Durham warehouse from a 6,000 square-foot facility to our new 17,000-foot facility. The Foundation has also supported our general operating expenses, which gives us the ability to enhance our capacity in other areas. And they helped us purchase a refrigerated truck that we use to distribute fresh food to our partner agencies."

Cox says that Foundation grants have a long-lasting, and perhaps life-altering, impact on the people that the Food Bank assists. "We know that healthy, fresh food is always better than highly processed food. North Carolina is one of the nation's largest agricultural-producing states, so we make every effort to take advantage of those resources. For example, studies at N.C. State have shown that sweet potatoes can lower the blood glucose of diabetics. Food is medicine. With the help of sponsors like the Biddle Foundation, we are able to make a difference in the lives of those in our communities who need us most."