NMB Fire Department Launches August 1-31 Canned Food Drive

NMB Fire Department launches August 1-31 canned food drive in support of Sea Haven’s Combat Hunger Project to provide food to local homeless and at-risk high school and middle school students

In support of Sea Haven’s Combat Hunger Project, which provides food to local homeless and at-risk high school and middle school students, the North Myrtle Beach Fire Department will collect canned and non-perishable food items August 1-31. People can drop off food items at any of the City’s five fire stations.

During the 2015-2016 school year Sea Haven’s Combat Hunger Project will provide food and information materials to students at five local high schools and two middle schools. The food and materials will be delivered to the schools each Friday by Sea Haven staff and volunteers, and school guidance counselors and other selected staff members will distribute them in confidence to the students in need. Sea Haven has been doing this since 2011.

Each of Sea Haven’s programs also offers an emergency food pantry for all youth accessing the program sites.

North Myrtle Beach Firefighter/EMT Aaron Asbury, who manages the Fire Department’s month-long food drive, said that the mission is a good one for residents and visitors to become involved in.

“There are many homeless and at-risk high school and middle school students countywide and in the North Myrtle Beach area,” Asbury said. “School programs can provide them with breakfast and lunch during the school week but they are on their own on the weekends, and that is when

Sea Haven’s Combat Hunger Project fills a crucial need. Without it, many of these students will not have the opportunity to eat again until they return to school on Monday.”

Some of the students helped by the Combat Hunger Project are homeless and others are members of low-income families that find it hard to access food supplies. Some students also live in homes where others may consume the little food there is, leaving the students to fend for themselves.

“If we can all help to make sure these kids have food over the weekend, they will be able to maintain the energy they need to stay focused in school during the week,” Asbury added. “When they become adults they will be equipped to move beyond the tough cycle they are caught in.”

Sea Haven, Inc., located at 3892 Highway 9 in Little River, is a nonprofit organization that provides emergency crisis services for area youth ages 13-21. Its mission is to “improve the overall well-being and safety of homeless forgotten youth ages 13-21 by extending a helping hand to those youth whose lives may be in disarray." Through positive intervention Sea Haven promotes opportunities for growth, learning, and happiness that might not be available in the experiences of such children. Sea Haven’s efforts are supplementary to existing public sponsored programs.

For more information about the North Myrtle Beach Fire Department’s food drive for Combat Hunger, please contact Aaron Asbury at caasbury@nmb.us or call 843-280-5511.

For more information about Sea Haven, Inc., visit http://www.seahaveninc.com or contact Wendy Gore, Development Director, Sea Haven, Inc., 843-399-8519.