N.C. Bar Association readies for food collection effort

In a rebuttal to the oft-made joke that lawyers have no heart, the North Carolina legal community is once again set to collect hundreds of thousands of pounds of food for low-income residents in North Carolina.

The latest collection effort kicked off on March 1 at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in Charlotte and is being coordinated by the North Carolina Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division.

Since 2013, the Bar Association’s Legal Feeding Frenzy program has gathered more than 820,000 pounds of food—enough for 686,000 meals for food-insecure individuals in North Carolina. And this year, the program has set a goal of crossing the 1 million-pound mark.

Bryan Norris, an attorney with Sharpless & Stavola in Greensboro, has been tapped to lead this year’s effort.

“The collections vary year-to-year,” Norris said. “But we are hopeful that we can get more than 300,000 pounds this year and get across the 1 million-pound threshold for what has been collected since 2013.”

To get there, 70 teams made up of lawyers from law firms, corporate counsel offices and nonprofits will each work to gather food from their friends and families. Once the collection effort is through, the food will be distributed to food banks across the state, which together serve all 100 counties in North Carolina.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper is serving as honorary chair of the event. He will also present the Attorney General’s Cup to the overall champion and recognize category winners on at an April 26 awards center at the N.C. Bar Center in Cary.

“The Legal Feeding Frenzy is one of the most impactful charitable events run by the NCBA,” Norris said. “Its effect is immediate, and its benefits are felt statewide. While everyone in the bar agrees on the value of legal services, there’s nothing more essential than having the basics met.”

Follow Jeff Jeffrey on Twitter at @JeffreyNCLW