SALISBURY — Greg Finchum says three things are required to fight hunger — heart, pride and being a “food king.”

“And sometimes,” Finchum said, “we even have to roar.”

Finchum, senior vice president of retail operations for Food Lion, was referring to the names of four awards Food Lion gives out at its annual Feedys Awards banquet.

The awards — named Lion Heart, Food King, Lion’s Pride and Store That Roars — were given to an individual, a food bank, a Food Lion associate and a store that went above and beyond to help end food insecurity in Food Lion’s 10-state footprint.

“It takes the work of all of us — our food bank partners, associates and stores — working together to provide hunger relief,” Finchum said.

Food Lion President Meg Ham said the annual Feedys Award banquet is about celebrating “the hard work” Food Lion associates and partners do every day to help close the hunger gap.

“We all know the statistics. One in six adults and one in four children face hunger every day. And in our own state of North Carolina, our home state where we have over 500 of our 1,000 stores, 1.7 million people are hunger-insecure,” Ham said. “These are incredibly heart-wrenching numbers. On the other hand, I’m intensely proud of the work we have done as an organization through Food Lion Feeds.”

Through that program, the company has committed to providing 500 million meals to people in need by the end of 2020. The program was begun in 2014.

“Together, we can end hunger,” Ham said. “But we know it’ll take everyone in this room to be able to do that.”

Andy Grill is the manager of Store 424 in Banner Elk, which won the 2018 Store That Roars award. His store was recognized for its work with the local YMCA.

“We’re in the mountains in a small town,” Grill said. “So our food bank only distributes food to our community once a month.”

Grill said that limited distribution meant the local food bank, Feeding Avery Families, couldn’t use his store’s produce because it would rot before it could be distributed.

“So we were looking for other avenues, other areas. And with the YMCA, they have children after school every day,” Grill said.

Grill and his team worked out a deal with the YMCA to provide fresh produce that it could use in its after-school programs.

Someone from the YMCA picks up boxes of produce five times a week from the store.

“So every day when they have the kids, they’ve got a fresh set of that day’s product, three or four of whatever there may be,” Grill said.

Food Lion provided Grill with enough medals to give to each of his 40 store associates when he returns to Banner Elk.

Grill said he thinks the Food Lion Feeds program is “awesome.”

“There’s so many charities out there, and there’s so many things. You want to help everything, but you can’t help everything,” Grill said. “But since we are in the business of selling food, it’s what we do.”

He said the idea of a child going home hungry in his community is hard to think about.

“So this really warms our heart, doing something about it,” Grill said. “It’s something we want to work toward, and I’m excited about it. It’s something big.”

Other award winners included assistant store manager Steven Sanchez of Fayetteville, who won the Lion’s Pride Award; Feeding America Southwest Virginia food bank, which won the Food King Award; and Pastor Irene Moore of Solid Rock Apostolic Holiness Church Food Pantry in Chesapeake, Virginia, who won the Lion Heart Award.

Awards also were given for honorary in-store campaign achievements and long-standing partnerships between Food Lion and its partner food banks.

Food Lion has 30 food bank partners across its 10-state footprint.

Thirteen Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation Child Feeding Grants were also given. All except one were for $10,000.

“What is never lost on me is the labor of love that this is,” Finchum said. “And we have a number of reminders today that what you do, what we do, makes a difference.”

Contact reporter Jessica Coates at 704-797-4222.