Our Beginnings
The Filling Station, a dream born out of a long vacant, propane company building, opened its doors on August 28, 2017. Why the Filling Station name? During a walk-through of the building, someone noticed a red hazardous material warning sign with a flame and the number 1075, the DOT classification for propane. The group discovered that Psalm 107:5 read: “They were hungry and thirsty; their lives were slipping away.” A new mission was launched and it was called “The Filling Station” to refer to the building’s prior use as well as to its new purpose. Our mission is to assist with filling unmet needs in the areas of Nutrition, Education, and Connection serving the residents of Jones County.
Lenoir Community College provides basic computer classes to keep the community connected.
The New Bern Amateur Radio Club (nbarc.org) is also a partner who can notify the community in the case of an emergency and works closely with Jones County Emergency Management.
We opened our Food Pantry on September 6, 2018, one week before Hurricane Florence hit Eastern North Carolina. Mayor Jay Bender called on us to serve as a disaster relief center. On September 21st, we opened as a Disaster Relief center providing assistance to over 10,000 individuals (2500 households) with the help from over 75-100 volunteers and approximately 250 donors from around the United States.
January 2019, we returned to our main mission of Nutrition, Education, and Connection. Our Food Pantry is open 2 days a week and we have served 6643 individuals (3102 households) in Jones County.