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Claiborne County kids will benefit from the $2,700 check recently presented to the local nonprofit organization REC Ministries. The money, generated through the Shooting Hunger Sporting Clays fundraiser, will be used to purchase food backpacks for hungry children.

The event was co-sponsored by the Tennessee Farm Bureau, Tennessee Farmers’ Cooperative and Farm Credit Mid-America/Rural 1^st.

REC Ministries (the Regional Education Center) has had a bountiful history of helping others to achieve a better life through its myriad programs. With its base of operations in New Tazewell, leaders Judy and Roger Hansard make it a point to cover East Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky and Southwest Virginia with their special brand of service through love.

REC Ministries offers a food pantry each week along with a plethora of literacy and tutoring programs, seminar classes and courses ranging from job skills to how to become a disciple maker. The organization also offers certified trainers in adult reading and writing and English as a second language.

In 2015, discussions about joining state agriculture and businesses together to combat community hunger resulted in the creation of the Shooting Hunger Sporting Clays. The first event, held in October 2015, raised funds to provide more than 88,000 meals.

The annual events have been nothing short of amazing with shooters arriving from as far as Nebraska and numerous sponsors supporting the effort.

Hunger in Tennessee is reportedly a reality for one in five Tennesseans. The most recent Feeding America study shows that an estimated 37 million Americans are food insecure. That number includes some 1 million Tennesseans who fall above the 11.5 percent national average with a food insecurity rate of 14 percent. Meaning, Tennessee is among the top ten states within the nation with the highest food insecurity.

Inadequate nutrition is associated with adverse effects in school that carry long-term consequences.

The Shooting Hunger Program distributes funds evenly across the 95 counties within the state with the majority of the money providing weekly food backpacks to school children who would otherwise go without over the weekends. The remaining funds are donated to local food pantries across Tennessee.

For more information about Shooting Hunger, log onto: www.shootinghunger.com.

For more about the Regional Education Center (REC Ministries), call 865-279-1430. The REC Food Pantry is located at 145 Cherry St. in New Tazewell. Call for the days and hours of operation.