ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- The Food Bank of the Southern Tier hosted 10 teams from Corning Incorporated for a special event. Teams had one hour to pack as many food bags for children at risk for hunger on weekends and during school breaks. 

“The Corning Foundation is so excited to partner with the food bank of the southern tier to do corning leader of the pack. We have 100 corning employees divided into 10 different teams and they are all competing in a number of different ways,” said Andrea Lynch, president Corning Incorporated Foundation. 

All of teams prepared by fundraising ahead of the event. One in six children in the Southern Tier are food insecure.  

“Kids who have been identified as being at risk of experiencing hunger in the home get a kid friendly, easy to prepare, food items in a bag, slipped into their bags discretely every Friday,” said President and CEO of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, Natasha Thompson. 

Throughout Upstate, New York 39,000 children qualify for free or reduced meals at school. These meals are not guaranteed to be nutritious.

“Last year the food bank distributed over 80 thousand individual packs across the Southern Tier region. Every one of those packs was packed by a volunteer. So, we could not do this program without the support of the community and the incredible volunteers that make it happen,” said Thompson. 

Leader of the pack began in 2019 and changed to a semi-virtual event during the COVID-19 pandemic. The timed event returned in September 2022 in person.  More than 90 thousand dollars was raised for today's event.