{"id":660,"date":"2026-01-01T21:09:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/?p=660"},"modified":"2026-01-01T21:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:09:38","slug":"narayana-seva-at-north-carolina-food-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/community-service\/narayana-seva-at-north-carolina-food-pantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Narayana Seva at North Carolina Food Pantry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>North Carolina faces significant hunger, with recent estimates showing around 1 in 7 people (over 1.6 million), including nearly 1 in 5 children (over 438,000), are food insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to enough food for a healthy life, with disparities seen across racial groups and regions. While rates dipped slightly to about 10.9% around 2021-2023, newer data from late 2024\/early 2025 indicates a rise back to around 13.9% or higher, with increased reliance on government assistance and food pantries signaling worsening conditions due to rising costs.<\/p>\n<p>On January 19th. 2025, America Saraswata Sangha (AMSAS) contributed $1,000 in cash (via check) and approximately $100 worth of non perishable can goods to the Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina. The purpose of this contribution was aligned with our goal as a spiritual\/religious organization, with a purpose to help alleviate hunger. We feel doubly blessed as we are a local North Carolina based organization with our worship center located in Efland, NC.<\/p>\n<p>The food bank informed us that the $1,000 contribution will have an equal corporate match and will provide 10,000 meals. The 196 cans of sweet corn weighed 210 pounds and will additionally feed 1,050 persons.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-661 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_2-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_2-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_2-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_2-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_2.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 85vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_1.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-662 \" src=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_1-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_1-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_1-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_1-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/north_carolina_1.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 221px) 85vw, 221px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Carolina faces significant hunger, with recent estimates showing around 1 in 7 people (over 1.6 million), including nearly 1 in 5 children (over 438,000), are food insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to enough food for a healthy life, with disparities seen across racial groups and regions. While rates dipped slightly to about 10.9% &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/community-service\/narayana-seva-at-north-carolina-food-pantry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Narayana Seva at North Carolina Food Pantry&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[14,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayaguru.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}