Several area chefs gathered Monday night at The Terraces on Sir Tyler to participate in the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina’s Chef’s Feast fundraiser.

The inaugural event featured a cooking demonstration from Vivian Howard, owner of Chef & the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, as well as dishes from distinguished Wilmington chefs. Participants included Catch chef Keith Rhodes, who served as the chef ambassador of this year’s event, Ryan Andress of University of North Carolina Wilmington, James Doss of Pembroke’s/Rx, Craig Love of Surf House, Jameson Chavez of manna and Dean Neff of PinPoint.

According to organizers, the event was designed to increase awareness of the Food Bank’s mission to provide meals for the nearly 75,000 people living with food insecurity in the Wilmington area.

Headquartered in Raleigh, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina has five additional branches: Durham, the Sandhills, New Bern, Greenville and Wilmington. The Wilmington branch serves Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.

The Wilmington branch serves 100 member agencies within the four counties, according to branch director Beth Gaglione. Member agencies typically consist of organizations such food pantries and soup kitchens, Gaglione said.

“We were so pleased and grateful to have so many reputable chefs on board for our inaugural event,” Gaglione said.  “The food they served was beyond our expectations.”

The number of attendees also exceeded Gaglione’s expectations.

“We set out with a goal of selling 250 tickets,” Gaglione said. “Once we announced Vivian Howard’s participation we quickly sold 350 and ended up having to turn numerous people away.”

Gaglione said that for an inaugural event the organization hoped to break even, but in fact the event brought in enough money to not only cover costs but to provide meals for 125,000 people in need. 

“Vivian’s participation, along with our Wilmington chefs, really helped us to create something that we hope can become a signature event for the Food Bank,” Gaglione said.

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