Food Lion Feeds Foundation and Lowcountry Food Bank (LCFB) hold dedication ceremony for Community Resource Center in Hampton County

Food Lion Feeds Contributed $300,000 to Support the Facility’s Teaching Kitchen and Conference Room’s Community Resource Center

Food Lion Feeds and Lowcountry Food Bank (LCFB) held a dedication ceremony last week at Lowcountry Food Bank’s new Southern Region Food Center in Early Branch, SC, which officially opened in May 2025. Food Lion associates packed food boxes for local neighbors after the dedication took place.

Food Lion Feeds contributed $300,000 to support the facility’s teaching kitchen and the conference room’s Community Resource Center.

Since 2014, Food Lion Feeds has partnered with local feeding organizations, customers and communities through grants and annual campaigns to combat food insecurity and nourish the neighbors in the communities they serve. The organization fills program gaps and boosts their ability to sustainably handle, store and distribute fresh, healthy food.

They also support programs that provide mobile food distributions and greater access to healthy food. Food Lion Feeds-administered nutrition education programs help equip neighbors with tools and knowledge to choose healthy food options. Their job skills training programs empower neighbors to develop lifelong skills to find jobs and break the cycle of food insecurity.

Since it began, the foundation has donated more than $17.5 million across its communities.

“At Food Lion, we believe no one should have to choose between dinner and rent or gas and groceries,” said Kevin Durkee, Manager, Food Lion Feeds, Food Lion. “We’re proud to support a space that will serve as a hub for learning, connection and nourishment. The teaching kitchen and conference room will empower families in Hampton County with resources, skills and support that help set our neighbors up for success in life.”

“As we look to the future, we know the Food Lion Feeds Community Resource Center will have an enduring legacy; serving our neighbors and contributing to our mission and Food Lion’s mission to nourish our neighbors and set them up for success in life,” said Nick Osborne, Lowcountry Food Bank President and CEO. “We are so appreciative for our partnership and thank Food Lion for its commitment to hunger relief organizations throughout its service area.”

In the southern-most counties that Lowcountry Food Bank serves, almost 14.5% of the population experiences food insecurity every day, which equates to more than 37,000 neighbors in these counties alone, which means they may not know how they will put food the table. Of this food-insecure population, more than 21% of children experience food insecurity, which equates to more than 9,300 children in these counties.

Lowcountry Food Bank (LCFB) in 2022 secured land on the Agriculture Technology Campus (ATC) in Hampton, South Carolina to build a 20,000 square foot facility. The building is strategically positioned to serve neighbors in Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper Counties and provide opportunities for increased engagement, scale and capacity-sharing for our partner agencies, who distribute almost 90% of the food that Lowcountry Food Bank procures.

The facility has warehouse capacity to store dry and refrigerated food, enable frozen storage, and includes loading docks, a teaching kitchen, and offices. There is ample volunteer and meeting space for LCFB partners to use. The new facility will enable expansion of LCFB food programs in the area.

In addition to increasing efficiencies among LCFB’s other two Food Centers in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, the new facility will serve as a hub for LCFB partners, providing an improved experience for food pickup, opportunities to convene through increased coordination, collaboration and shared learning in the Food Lion Feeds teaching kitchen and conference areas. Food Lion also provided a large donation which helped build the LCFB Myrtle Beach facility when it opened in 2019.

For more information about Lowcountry Food Bank’s work, visit their website at lowcountryfoodbank.org.

About Food Lion

Food Lion is an omnichannel grocery retailer committed to nourishing its neighbors. More than 82,000 associates across 1,100+ stores deliver an easy, fresh and affordable shopping experience throughout 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. With a focus on hunger relief, Food Lion is a pioneer in food rescue. Since 2014, the company’s hunger relief platform Food Lion Feeds has donated more than 1.5 billion meals to those who are food insecure. The retailer has committed to donate 3 billion meals by 2032. Founded and based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, Food Lion is a company of Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. division of Zaandam-based Ahold Delhaize. For more information, visit foodlion.com.

About Lowcountry Food Bank: Feed. Advocate. Empower.

The Lowcountry Food Bank serves the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina and distributed more than 45 million pounds of food in 2024. The Lowcountry Food Bank helps fight hunger by distributing food to more than 240 partner agencies including on-site meal programs, homeless shelters and emergency food pantries. The Lowcountry Food Bank advocates on behalf of those who experience hunger and helps empower people to make healthy and nutritious food choices. For more information, visit the Lowcountry Food Bank website.