Mast General Store’s Be a Sweetheart campaign has provided neighbors in need with healthy meals for 22 years, but few winters in the past two decades have seen a greater demand for food than this one. 

In parts of the Mast Store region during a typical year, one in eight people lack access to sufficient food resources. This year, following Hurricane Helene last September, the need for food is unparalleled, and, as many Home Office staff who participated in last month’s Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service saw first-hand, so is the need for volunteers at local food security organizations to help distribute it. 

During Be a Sweetheart, Saturday, February 15 – Sunday, February 16, each Mast location will donate $1 to a partnering food security agency in its community for each pound of bulk candy purchased. While a dollar may at first sound insignificant, its value is magnified through our food security agencies’ networks of resources and can provide up to $5 in food value. This enhanced value supplies each of the organization’s clients with three to five healthy meals. 

The Original Mast Store, Mast Store Annex, and Boone Mast Store will partner with Hunger and Health Coalition. This organization provides food and health access to more than 14,000 households in the North Carolina High Country, as well as remote parts of East Tennessee, each year. Many of its clients were severely affected by last year’s hurricane, and the agency continues to experience an uptick in need. 

Contributions from the Asheville, Hendersonville, and Waynesville Mast Stores benefit MANNA FoodBank. MANNA’s Asheville headquarters was devastated by Hurricane Helene and the agency lost nearly all its food and facilities. The resilient agency has since relocated its operations to Mills River so it can continue to serve residents of 16 Western North Carolina counties. 

The Winston-Salem Mast Store will support Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina. This group supplies 18 counties with food and meal assistance. Its service area includes Ashe, Caldwell, and Watauga counties, whose residents continue to recover from extensive storm damage. 

The Knoxville Mast Store will partner with Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee. This agency serves more than 202,500 East Tennessee residents experiencing hunger across 18 counties. Among other resources, it uses mobile food pantries to serve communities in food deserts that exist in especially rural counties and works closely with over 670 churches, community centers, schools, and food banks throughout its region. 

Mast Store Roanoke teams with its region’s largest food assistance nonprofit, Feeding Southwest Virginia, which serves residents of 26 counties and nine cities. According to its data, one in seven adults and one in five children living in Southwest Virginia are food insecure. The agency maintains food distribution centers in Salem and Abingdon to reach nearly 115,000 Virginians with nourishing meals each month. 

Loaves & Fishes is the recipient of the Greenville Mast Store’s donations. This organization benefits its region as a food rescue agency that redistributes surplus food to food insecure people. With this unique model of operations, Loaves & Fishes turns a single dollar donation into the equivalent of $19 in rescued food value. In 2023, the agency rescued 2.7 million pounds of food from local sources, which it delivered to community food pantries, low-income housing residents, and children’s, seniors’, and special needs populations’ services, among other entities. 

The Columbia Mast Store will partner with South Carolina’s largest food security agency, Harvest Hope. This group annually provides 27 million meals to residents of 20 counties across the Midlands, Pee Dee, and Upstate regions of the state. Through its network of 330 partners, Harvest Hope operates programs focused on serving South Carolina’s most vulnerable residents – children, seniors, and rural residents who live in food deserts – as well as those experiencing food access emergencies. 

Be a Sweetheart is the year’s first campaign to address local food insecurity. As we move into 2025, Lisa Cooper, Mast Store’s president, reminds us to embrace these – and other – opportunities to lend a hand to our neighbors as many of our communities persist in their hurricane recovery efforts. 

“Community outreach is a core value in our Mast General Store work family. The most rewarding aspect of being a part of this community is giving back to make a difference in our neighbors’ lives,” said Lisa. 

In conjunction with Be a Sweetheart, from Friday, February 14 – Sunday, February 16, store guests also have the chance to RoundUp any purchase to the next whole dollar. These RoundUps will supplement Be a Sweetheart contributions to each location’s  partnering agency. Again, small change adds up to make a big impact in people’s lives. 

Thank you for doing your part to Be a Sweetheart as we all help build stronger, healthier communities at a time when our neighbors need it most!