LUMBERTON — The tight fit didn’t stop local residents Friday from driving around the Robeson County Disaster Recovery Committee’s headquarters on Elm Street to pick up some much-needed household items.
“It’s been nonstop,” Cassandra Campbell, the committee’s executive director, said of the steady flow of people.
The committee partnered with Apples, a service learning student organization at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to create distribute cleaning supplies, hams and nonperishable food items, candy, hygiene products and other home items. The food was donated by the Second Harvest Food mobile food bank.
Campbell said the project is for victims of Hurricane Florence and anyone who needs help. The day also was used as an opportunity collect contact information in order to connect recovery case managers with victims of Hurricane Florence.
“We see that people are still in need,” Campbell said.
People in Robeson County who were already poverty stricken have been plummeted deeper into economic stress because of the storm, she said.
“Robeson County is already 31.6 percent below poverty level, so people are going to need regardless of a disaster,” Campbell said. “They’re going to show up whether they have damage from the hurricane or not.”
The project was set up like a drive-through with cars lining up and volunteers placing items in vehicles. Some residents, like Lenora Parker, who lives around the block from the headquarters, came on foot to grab some items.
“It’s a blessing is what it is,” Parker said. “Stuff like this helps.”
Parker said a neighbor told her about the distribution event. She is thankful for the community helping her during Hurricane Florence, Parker said.
Twenty-five volunteers came out to lend their support. Michelle He, a sophomore at UNC, and junior Amy Cockerham led the team of Apples members who volunteered for the day. The organization comes to Lumberton at least once a year to volunteer.
Cockerham said the group originally came to the county to learn about rural communities and the Lumbee Tribe’s culture and customs, but saw there was a need to broaden the trip into hurricane relief and recovery.
“We knew we were coming to Lumberton but then we heard about the hurricane and we knew that we definitely needed to make our service focus on hurricane relief as well,” He said
The team also assisted at the United Way distribution center and will be working on a housing project on Saturday. Cockerham said her experience in Lumberton has been eye-opening.
“It’s been really good,” Cockerham said. “I realize that they’re very grateful for all Cassandra is doing for them, and everyone is just happy with everything they get.”
Campbell said the help from volunteers relieves some of the burden, but more help is needed.
“We need more. We need 50 or 60,” Campbell said. “There’s so many different facets in this organization. We need people on the telephones. We need people on the streets passing out fliers. We need volunteers.”
The headquarters is located at 802 N. Cedar St.
Other partners that contributed to the project were the city of Lumberton, Camp4Heroes and the town of Fairmont.
