Alex Newsome was a young boy with a passion for sports, cooking and enjoying food. It is now only fitting that his baseball team is organizing a food drive to remember him.

1491768_369641623244452_3081660709984377422_n

The name FOOD2HELP seems relatively straightforward, but there is meaning behind the phrase. A boy named Alex loved playing baseball, and he wore a number 2 on the back of his jersey. He is no longer with us, but his friends do not plan to forget him. The boys on a team that played baseball with Alex at Winter Park Optimist decided to remember him in an impactful way. They came up with the idea of a community food drive to support other children in the Wilmington area and they hope that it becomes an annual event in the community. The participation in this event is inspiring and will positively affect so many children and their families. In New Hanover County, 1 in 4 students go hungry every day and sometimes, the only meals a child receives are at school. It is easy to see how widespread the effects of this food drive will be.
The team behind it all is the Wilmington Pride Baseball team. They started this community food drive to honor  Alex. Alex’s parents chose NourishNC as the non-profit to receive the donations, and we will use these immense resources to feed as many hungry New Hanover children as possible. The food drive initiated at Winter Park Optimist, Myrtle Grove and Roland Grise Middle School as well as Parsley Elementary School and Lifepoint Church. There was even a competition between two rival middle schools, Roland Grise and Myrtle Grove, to see who could raise the most food. The competition ended, but the students were so passionate that they asked for more time for collection. The last of the donations were picked up on March 26th and they are still being counted. We will release the winner in next week’s blog update.
Many businesses have been unbelievably generous by acting as drop off locations, providing prizes for competitions, designing promotional resources and donating supplies. A few of the charitable businesses involved are Incredible Pizza, Coastal Athletics,  Stadium Batting Cages, Coastal Cupcakes, Port City Java, Post 10 Baseball, Hoggard Baseball, New Hanover Baseball, Harris Teeter, McDonalds, Jungle Rapids, UNCW, Wilmington Sharks, Daryl Strickland, Stefanie Rankin, 3906 Design  Lifepoint Church, LaCroix Veterinary Hospital and Wilmington Orthotics and Prosthetics. The overwhelming support from the companies has enabled this event to exponentially grow and we would like to thank every business that participated.
ancfd
There is a Facebook page updating information about the drive frequently (Alex Newsome Community Food Drive). The hashtag #newsomestrong is also being used on social media platforms to tag conversation of the topic. If you would like to help process the items received then you can sign up for a date here.
When something tragic happens, the hope of everyone involved is that something positive and inspirational can come from it. In this scenario, something charitable and hopefully enduring has come from a loss.
Written by Kaylor Gray Wells