 September 2nd is National Food Bank Day and the East Kentucky Dream Center is working to ensure the residents of Pike County have access to hot meals and shelf-stable food. We do hot meals every Wednesday and Friday in our Pikeville location on Hibbert Street. Each of those days we serve between three to three hundred and seventy. We also offer free hot meals in Elkhorn City on Tuesdays. That is at the Elkhorn City Baptist Church Life Center. Up there we're serving between three to three fifty. You know when we started four years ago we were serving thirty to thirty five people but the need has just quickly quickly grown. Everybody knows that we're here. We work with Debbie at Grace Community Church or Community Kitchen and we make it now to where in five days a week in Pikeville everybody gets a hot meal. My name is Aaron Crump, Chief Medical Officer at Pikeville Medical Center. The Heart and Vascular Institute it's really an incredible program made incredible because of the providers, because of the technology and because of the staff. We've truly become the leading provider of Heart and Vascular Services in Eastern Kentucky and in fact what we do compares to anywhere in the nation. Pikeville Medical Center when it comes to your heart place your care in our hands. Across Kentucky one in seven families struggle with food insecurity and in Pike County one in four families struggle with food insecurity. EKDC provides over 100 food boxes weekly to bridge the gap to those struggling. Food banks in this area they don't get enough praise. Unless you work there, volunteer there or have had to go there for supplies and food of your own you don't really realize how much goes into that. You have to sort this food, you have to make sure the dates are right, you have to package the food for families. So really awareness needs to be brought to life of you know these places are here and they're highly utilized but also just the importance of what goes into them that that we need your donations you know we seek your donations because we're feeding your hometown. The biggest donation needs are non-perishable items with pop-top lids, baby formula, baby food and snacks for those without access to a kitchen. For more information or to donate visit East Kentucky Dream Center on Facebook. For Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.