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I will be writing several future articles with information obtained and referenced from Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB), Feeding Pennsylvania (FP), and Feeding America (FA). In February, I mentioned that Second Harvest is collaborating with three Lehigh County Food Pantries with their Healthy Pantry Initiative (HPI) grant. Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is excited or be chosen as one of them.
Khushboo Jain, Nutrition Educator at SHFB says “The goal of HPI is to reduce long-term burden of diet related diseases through a “beyond food” approach.” The “beyond food” approach aims to devise long-term solutions to food insecurity by addressing all the factors that cause poverty (employment, wages, and other socioeconomic factors). So while providing participants with nutritious food is essential, HPI also supports our pantries with a network of community organizations so they can offer or refer participants to other services they may need to break that cycle of food insecurity.” Below is to explain the cycle of food insecurity and chronic disease mentioned by Khushboo. This info comes directly from Feeding America https://tinyurl.com/2p9b5xbh “The Hunger in America 2014 study found that many households served by the Feeding America® network of food banks include people coping with a diet-related chronic disease. Fifty-eight percent of households reported having at least one member with high blood pressure and 33 percent had at least one member with diabetes. The cycle of food insecurity and chronic disease begins when an individual or family cannot afford enough nutritious food. The combination of stress and poor nutrition can make disease management even more challenging. Further, the time and money needed to respond to these health conditions strains the household budget, leaving little money for essential nutrition and medical care. This causes the cycle to continue, increasing the risk of worsening existing conditions. Many families experiencing food insecurity often have several, if not all, compounding factors, which make maintaining good health extremely difficult.” WCHI has seen first-hand what compounding factors affect our Pantry guests. All are on fixed incomes. Our guests tell us they have to choose between food and a myriad of other expenses i.e. medicine and medical care; housing expenses: rent, taxes, and utilities. Current gas and food prices are also affecting them. Feeding America continues on with the above article, “households must use coping strategies to meet their food needs, including: Purchasing inexpensive, unhealthy food (79%), Receiving help from friends (53%); Watering down food or drinks (40%), Selling or pawning personal property (35%), and growing food in a garden (23%). More than half (55%) of households served by the Feeding America network, reported having to use three or more coping strategies to deal with tough financial choices. Some of these coping strategies may support one’s health, but others that make sense in the short term can be detrimental to health in the long term. This is particularly true in households with children and among people who are already coping with a diet-related, chronic disease.” Every month during our food distribution, our guests comment how grateful they are that WCHI is here to help them. All our volunteers understand the stresses our guests are experiencing as mentioned above. WCHI is proud to be achieving Our Mission: To alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. Thank you for reading my article and have a great week!!!
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IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT WCHI’S APRIL FOOD PANTRY DISTRIBUTION DATES: Due to April 14th being a Holy Day, St John the Baptist Church has services in the evening and WCHI CANNOT provide our Food distribution on Thursday night. Instead the night distribution will be held on Wednesday, April 13th from 5:30-7:00pm. There is NO change for Thursday morning. Thursday, April 14th daytime distribution will remain as always 11am-1pm.
NOTE: WCHI is planning on moving our outdoor operations inside for the Thursday, May 12th food distribution with specified appointment times. Every guest attending either the April 13th or the April 14th food distribution will be given an appointment time card with a time slot for May. For guests who cannot attend our April distribution, please call me to schedule an appointment. This move indoors is very exciting. And I will share more information as we get closer to the May distribution. SPRING is here! Do you love to garden? The Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is in search of gardening enthusiasts who would enjoy adopting a raised garden bed in the WCHI GARDEN located at the Mickley-Prydun Farm, 3540 Ruch St, Whitehall. Individuals, families, community and faith based groups are invited to plant and maintain a raised garden bed throughout the 2022 growing season. We had a successful meeting at my office on Friday!! The WCHI will provide the soil, seeds and/or plants and a small sign at each bed thanking the gardener for participating at our garden. Water for the garden will be available thanks to the Hokendauqua Fire Department. The volunteer gardeners will provide the physical work, energy and fun needed to harvest a bounty of produce. 16 small raised beds are available for planting. All harvested produce will be given to Whitehall and Coplay residents in need through our WCHI Children’s Summer Feeding Program and our WCHI Food Pantry. Interested volunteers should register at https://tinyurl.com/WCHIvolunteer All adult volunteers must complete state mandated child abuse clearances https://tinyurl.com/WCHIforms Organize a group and adopt a raised garden bed! You’ll be gardening next to the house that was once the home of John Jacob Mickley, Sr., who brought the Liberty Bell by wagon from Philadelphia to Allentown for safekeeping from British troops during the Revolutionary War. Our garden can also be seen from the Ironton Rail Trail. WCHI is in need of a used, but reliable lawnmower for the garden. And we always need toiletries for our Pantry distributions including: Baby and Adult Diapers, Feminine Products, Men’s and Women’s Razors, Men’s Shaving Cream, Shampoo & Conditioner, Soap, Tissues, Toilet Paper, Toothpaste, and Toothbrushes. All Donations are appreciated and may be shipped or dropped off at Re/Max Unlimited Real Estate, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall, PA 18052. Please leave your donations inside the foyer on the right, Monday through Friday 9AM- 5PM, Saturday 9AM-1PM & Sunday 10AM-1PM. Please call me on any of the above items. Thank you, as always, for your continued support. Please note the following April dates:
Friday, April 1st at 11am, WCHI Vegetable Garden Meeting for anyone interested in volunteering at our garden this year. This meeting will be at my Re/Max office, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall. Sunday, April 3rd -Free Community Meal at Faith Lutheran Church, 3355 MacArthur Rd, Whitehall 4:00-6:30pm, guaranteed for the 1st 100 guests. Call Judy for more info 610-554-3569. Sunday, April 10th -WCHI Bingo at St Peter Church, 4 South 5th St, Coplay. Bingo doors open at 1pm and calling starts at 2pm. Call Liz for more info 484-274-6687. FOOD PANTRY IMPORTANT APRIL DATES: Due to April 14th being a Holy Day, St John the Baptist has Church services in the evening and WCHI CANNOT provide our Food distribution Thursday night. Instead the night distribution will be held on Wednesday, April 13th from 5:30-7:00 pm. There is NO change for Thursday morning. Thursday, April 14th daytime distribution will remain as always 11am-1pm. NOTE: WCHI is planning on moving our outdoor operations inside for the Thursday, May 12th food distribution with specified appointment times. Every guest attending either the April 13th or the April 14th food distribution will be given an appointment time card with a time slot for May. For guests who cannot attend our April distribution, please call me to schedule an appointment. For our guests, who have mobility issues, don’t worry. We will have an ordering form available for you to complete during your scheduled time in May. A WCHI volunteer will shop for you and bring the food to your car in the Church parking lot. This move indoors is very exciting. And I will share more information as we get closer to the May distribution. WCHI provides several outreach programs including: our Food Pantry; our Snack Pack Pal Program for both WCSD and St Elizabeth’s Regional School; our Children’s Summer Feeding Program (CSFP), which operates for 10.5 weeks over the summer when school is closed at four locations -three in Whitehall and one in Coplay; our WCHI Vegetable Garden; our Free Community Meals (FCM), and our Bingo. Other than the FCM and Bingo, all our programs require clearances. See below under Volunteers Needed. We do need Spanish and Arabic translators to help us communicate at both our Food Pantry and CSFP. Please call me for more info. No child abuse clearances are required for this specific translating service. MORE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED -WCHI is 100% volunteer and WCHI could never do any of our community outreach programs without their selfless support and time. WCHI has 70 cleared volunteers and we could use many more dedicated people. Our WCHI programs help so many residents. All volunteers must have state required background clearances (Required by PA State Law) plus some WCHI clearances since we come in contact with children. For a full list of our requirements, please go to https://tinyurl.com/WCHIforms and to register https://tinyurl.com/WCHIvolunteer. Once obtained, these clearances are good for 5 years. Questions: please Contact Sylvia at Volunteerme.Lee@gmail.com Can YOU offer your time and talents? I thank you in advance for helping WCHI to accomplish Our Mission: To alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. Do you like to garden and have a few hours a week to help us at our WCHI Garden at the Mickley-Prydun Farm? A kick-off meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 1st at 11am at my Re/Max Unlimited Office, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall. All produce grown is given throughout the summer to our Children’s Summer Feeding Program (CSFP) and then to our Pantry guests once the CSFP is finished & the children return to school. Full child abuse clearances are required. https://tinyurl.com/WCHIforms Once obtained, the clearances are good for 5 years.
Thank you to both Faith Lutheran Church, for hosting our Free Community Meal on Sunday, April 3rd and to St John’s Lutheran Church on Sunday, May 1st. These free meals are available from 4:00-6:30pm and are guaranteed for the 1st 100 guests. More info on these meals will be shared as we get closer to the dates and will be posted on Facebook. We currently have 7 available meal dates for the rest of 2022: April 19th, July 3rd, July 19th, August 7th, September 4th, October 2nd, and December 4th. Please contact me if your faith based organization can host a meal for any of these available dates. Thank you!! Our selfless volunteers currently pre- bag all our food for outside Pantry distributions. Our Grand Opening on May 12th is to accomplish two things: 1. Introduce our guests to our model of Feeding America’s Healthy Pantry Initiative’s (HPI) and 2. Move our distribution inside our Pantry. Our Pantry guests will then be able to select a certain number of food items from each food group that appeals to them. Everyone will have a scheduled Pantry time. We will give our guests their appointment time at our April 14th distribution. For our guests, who have mobility issues, don’t worry. We will have an ordering form available for you to complete during your scheduled time. A WCHI volunteer will shop for you and bring the food to your car in the Church parking lot. I will share more exciting news on our HPI during the next few weeks. Please note: WCHI is reorganizing our Pantry space and have dedicated shelving and specific food group items tailored to follow best practice recommendations from Feeding America. Our shelves will be packed with cases of specific food and not individual cans when we open in May. All our food is currently ordered through Second Harvest. WCHI appreciates all the food donations the public, school groups, and organizations have provided for Pantry distributions over the years and the ones you are currently doing. Please coordinate with me for delivery by April 29th. After this date, we will not be collecting food items for the Pantry. We have removed the Pantry food items we were collecting from our website. However, for the Pantry we are desperately in need of toiletries for our guests. People cannot obtain toiletry items with SNAP or WIC benefits. And many Seniors do not have discretionary money to purchase toiletries. These are the items most needed: Baby and Adult Diapers, Feminine Products, Men’s and Women’s Razors, Men’s Shaving Cream, Shampoo & Conditioner, Soap, Tissues, Toilet Paper, Toothpaste, and Toothbrushes. We ARE still collecting specific food items for Snack Pack Pals (SPP) during the school year and will also continue to collect food items for our Children’s Summer Feeding Program (CSFP). SPP items are on our website https://tinyurl.com/SnackPackPals and CSFP products will be added in mid-May. These items are still pre-bagged and do not take up shelving space, just pallet space. All product and monetary donations are appreciated and may be dropped off, mailed, or shipped to WCHI c/o Shari Noctor at Re/Max Unlimited Real Estate, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall, PA 18052. Our next Free Community Meal will be this Tuesday, March 15th from 4:00-6:30 pm at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, 618 Fullerton Ave, Whitehall. Guests have the option of sitting down for the meal or doing take out. The meal is Shepherd’s Pie. The meal is guaranteed for the first 100 guests. Questions, please call 610-266-0695
Please note: We do not have any meals scheduled for April 3rd, April 19th, or May 1st. If any faith based organization is willing to do a meal on any of these days, please call me asap. Thank You.. WCHI had a sunny and warm day on March 10th for our Pantry Food Distribution. We all were so glad it snowed and rained the day before. We provided our guests with food and toiletries non-stop for both the morning and the evening distributions. WCHI is very happy to be helping so many households during these tough times. Our guests are all on fixed incomes and these escalating commodity prices are reducing their available money left for food, gas, medicine, rent, property taxes, and car/property insurance. Both WCHI and our guests are thrilled we have a Pantry to help our low income residents. THANK YOU, Monsignor Gobitas, St John the Baptist Church, and the Diocese of Allentown!!! On 3/10/22, WCHI served 241 households comprised of 884 residents; 369 children, 375 adults, and 140 seniors (age 60+); Morning distribution 179 households, Evening Distribution 62 households; and we also registered 31 new households. Several times a year, I like to share our opening day data as a comparison. When we opened last year on 1/11/21, we served and registered 91 households comprised of 308 residents; 113 children, 141 adults, and 54 seniors. We have come a long way and are so grateful we can help so many residents in need. They all are so appreciative. We can never help so many people without our wonderful, dedicated volunteers of all ages. WCHI needs more volunteers to help us with all of our programs including, but not limited to: our Food Pantry, Garden at Mickley-Prydun Farm, Children's Summer Feeding Program, Mickley Run Apartment Outreach, and our Snack Pack Pals program at both the Whitehall-Coplay School District and at St Elizabeth’s Regional School. We have day and evening opportunities available year round. We do have volunteers that help with all our programs and others who only work with certain ones. If you can volunteer, we would greatly appreciate it. WCHI does require several clearances, which are not hard to complete. Most of them can be completed on-line and you go at your own pace. You will need a computer with internet access. Whitehall and Coplay libraries have computers you can use. There are additional clearances if you are a Catholic parishioner since our Pantry is located on Church property, whether you volunteer at our Pantry or at one of our off site programs. Once you have adult clearances, they are good for 5 years. And there are minimal clearances required if you are a student, 12-17 years old. Note: Our bi-monthly Free Community Meal requirements, if any, will be at the sole discretion of the host meal site. None of the WCHI requirements pertain to our Community Meal Program. Please review our required clearances at https://tinyurl.com/WCHIforms Also, please sign-up at https://tinyurl.com/WCHIvolunteer so we know you are interested in becoming a WCHI volunteer. Once our Volunteer Coordinator, Sylvia Lee, receives all your clearances, she will place you our volunteer opportunity schedule. Volunteer questions, please contact Sylvia at Volunteerme.Lee@gmail.com WCHI Needs Toiletry Items for our Pantry guests which include: Baby and Adult Diapers, Feminine Products, Shampoo & Conditioner, Men’s and Women’s razors, and men’s shaving cream. All Donations are appreciated and may be shipped or dropped off at Re/Max Unlimited Real Estate, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall, PA 18052. Please leave your donations inside the foyer on the right, Monday through Friday 9AM- 5PM, Saturday 9AM-1PM & Sunday 10AM-1PM. Note: We do appreciate donated food items. However, donated refrigerated, frozen, perishable or homemade items WILL NOT be accepted due to food safety liability reasons. OUR MISSION is to alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. I wanted to give you an overview of our current programs since we are not just a Food Pantry.
FOOD PANTRY – The Pantry serves low-income Whitehall and Coplay residents. Located at St. John the Baptist Church, 3024 S. Ruch St, Whitehall, our food distributions take place the 2nd Thursday of each month from 11am-1pm and 5:30-7pm. We currently provide outside “drop and go” bags to Whitehall and Coplay residents in the Church parking lot. ID is required (driver’s license or current utility bill). Income limits apply - you just tell us your yearly, monthly, or weekly gross income (before taxes) and sign a self-declaration government form. Please note that there is no smoking on church property. If you are in need of food but are not a Whitehall or Coplay resident or do not have transportation, please call 484-225-0358. We know there are many food insecure residents in Whitehall Township and Coplay Boro and we want to provide food to them. Please let your family, friends, and neighbors who live in these two areas know about us. We are here to help. Many do not have transportation. Can you bring them? We are providing shelf stable dry food like rice, pasta, Mac & Cheese, canned tuna and chicken, canned string beans & corn, cereal, pancake mix, peanut butter and jelly plus more items along with frozen meats, dairy items like butter & cheese, and fresh produce. We also provide a couple toiletries and have a small amount of baby food and dog & cat food. Food items are subject to change. Please go to https://tinyurl.com/WCHIPantryList to donate needed food items. These items can also be dropped or shipped to Shari Noctor at my Re/Max Unlimited office, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall PA 18052 FREE COMMNITY MEALS - WCHI and the Faith-Based Community are proud to provide these FREE meals to low-income Whitehall-Coplay households twice a month through December 2022. The host location changes every time and they will decide if face masks are required. All are welcome to attend both meals on the 1st Sunday and 3rd Tuesday each month from 4:00-6:30pm. Meals are guaranteed for the first 100 guests. Each site location will state if this is an inside or outside “Drop and Go” pick up distribution or if it is a dine-in meal. We will post site requirements on Facebook for each meal. Go to tinyurl.com/WCHIprograms for updated meals.
Sunday, April 3; Tuesday, April 19; and Sunday, May 1 are to be determined. If any faith-based organization can do any of these dates, please contact Shari at 610-730-8067. Otherwise, we will not be able to offer a free meal on these days. BINGO - We are hosting two more Sunday bingos this spring. New location: St Peter Church, 4 South 5th St, Coplay March 13th and April 10th . Doors open at 1pm. Calling starts at 2pm. $15 entry fee buys you 2 bingo boards with four games. Each additional board is $1 each and a pack of 5 specials are $5. Bingo chips and dabbers are available for purchase. Masks are optional. Food is also available for purchase. Questions Contact Liz Rodgers 484-274-6687. SNACK PACK PALS- WCHI administers the Snack Pack Pal Program (SPP) with assistance from WCSD and St Elizabeth’s Regional School. The mission is to combat hunger for the most food -insecure students at both schools by providing a pack of kid-friendly, easy-to-prepare meals and snacks to supplement their nutrition over school holidays and long weekends. On average, WCHI provides 157 bags of shelf-stable food to WCSD and 10 bags to St Elizabeth’s monthly. VOLUNTEERS- We are 100% volunteer and WCHI could never do any of our programs without their selfless support and time. All volunteers must have state required criminal background checks since we work with children. For a full list of our requirements https://tinyurl.com/WCHIforms and to register https://tinyurl.com/WCHIvolunteer Questions, please Contact Sylvia Volunteerme.Lee@gmail.com Thank you and have a great week. Happy March – Spring is on the way!! I wanted to explain product dating codes for this week’s article. Many people believe they need to throw out canned and boxed food items once it is past the date on the label. Food manufacturers use different date codes to ensure that consumers receive their product at peak quality.
There are four ways products are code dated: 1. “Sell-by” date – tells the store how long to display the product for sale; 2. “Best if Used By (or Before)” – recommended for best flavor or quality. This is not a purchase or safety date; 3. “Use By” - the last date recommended for use of the product while at peak quality. The manufacturer of the product has determined the date; and 4. “Exp. (or Expires)” – this is a true expiration date. The food is not safe to eat and must be thrown away. Once a product is past the code date, many manufacturers and local grocery stores donate the food products to food banks. In our area, this would be Second Harvest Food Bank. Food Banks then provide food items to their member Pantries. Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative (WCHI) is a member Pantry and does receive the majority of our food items from Second Harvest. Now, let’s discuss how long food is good to eat with these dates. Very important - All baby food and formula must be thrown out by the expiration date. There is no nutritional value after this date. Second Harvest and WCHI monitors these dates and our pantry guests do not receive outdated baby food. Baby food recipients need to monitor these dates when the baby food is in your home pantry. You will find this section interesting. There are pages of food items and shelf life after coded dates. I selected shelf stable products most people purchase or receive from WCHI’s food distributions.
I hope you found this article interesting and informative. The source of this information is from Food Share Venture County Food Bank and was given to me by Second Harvest Food Bank. Both are members of Feeding America. I pulled out highlights from seven pages of their “Shelf Life after Coded Dates” article, which also includes refrigerated, frozen, and fresh produce along with many other shelf stable food items. Sunday --Best wishes for whichever football team you are cheering for today. Enjoy your Super Bowl parties and time with family and friends.
Monday – Happy Valentine’s Day! Please call a homebound friend or relative to say hello. Tuesday -Our Free Community Meal will be hosted by Whitehall Bible Fellowship Church, 3300 7th St, Whitehall. Guests will have a choice of a sit down meal or come in and take out. There are two hot entrees for you to choose from. Face masks are optional. Meals are available for the 1st 100 guests. Questions, please call 610-434-8661 On 2/10/2022, WCHI volunteers and our guests had a beautiful day with very gusty winds for our Pantry Food distribution. Our guest attendance was very similar to January. WCHI served 213 households comprised of 784 residents; 325 children, 343 adults, and 116 seniors (age 60+)!! We also registered 26 new households. A big shout out thank you to our wonderful volunteers, Second Harvest, and the general public who provide monetary funds and food/toiletry products to give to our guests. Also, THANK YOU, to all of you who have been doing food drives for WCHI including students, teachers and staff, businesses, clubs and faith based organizations. WE are so appreciative of your continued support and generosity!! Thank you, again. The Feeding America network is the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, working to connect people with food and end hunger. Feeding America has a nationwide network of about 200 food banks, including Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley & Northeast PA. Food banks are non-profit organizations that source and store foods within a large warehouse which they can then distribute through their network of food pantries and meal programs that serve families, children, seniors, and individuals facing food insecurity. Second Harvest Food Bank’s network is composed of about serves about 200 agencies in a six-county area: Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, and Wayne counties. WHCI is one of these agencies within Lehigh County. I am pleased to announce very exciting news for WCHI. Second Harvest is collaborating with THREE Food Pantries in Lehigh County within their Healthy Pantry Initiative (HPI) grant: Allentown Ecumenical Food Pantry, Northern Lehigh Food Pantry, and Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative! What is the HPI? This is a project of Feeding Pennsylvania, who is the statewide association of nine Feeding America affiliated food banks. Funding is provided by SNAP-Ed. The HPI goals are to 1. Increase access to healthy food within the food pantries and 2. Increase consumption of healthy food by pantry guests through various promotional methods and materials. There are so many great aspects to HPI that will favorably impact all our WCHI Program recipients --our Pantry guests, our Snack Pack Pal children, and our Children’s Summer Feeding Program children. Many more future newspaper articles and e-mail blasts will be forthcoming from me on this exciting new Initiative. WCHI is extremely honored to be selected as of one of about 52 Healthy Pantries in Pennsylvania and one of three in Lehigh County!! Just two reminders: 1. We do have our WCHI Food Pantry distribution this Thursday, February 10th 11-1 and 5:30-7pm in the St John the Baptist Church parking lot, 3024 S Ruch St, Whitehall 2. We also have our WCHI Bingo on Sunday, February 13th at Commitment to Family & Community, 165 Cherry St, Coplay. Doors open at 1 and bingo starts at 2. We play boards and paper specials. Face mask are required unless you are on oxygen. Bingo questions, call Liz 484-274-6687.
This week’s Food Pantry and Snack Pack Pal needed items include: Oatmeal Packets - Boxes of 6-10 Packets, Granola /Cereal Bars – 5-10 bars per box and Sam's Club Brand Fruit Cups – Diced Peaches or Mandarin Oranges. We ask for Sam’s Fruit cups because they provide the best nutritional value and allow us to easily label each serving with ingredients and allergen information to the ensure safety of our students. I wanted to talk about another food non-profit, Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley (MOWGLV). In talking with Victoria Coyle, Chief Executive Officer, more and more seniors, who have had family members or friends shop for them, are falling into a void now because people are still afraid to go out due to Covid. MOWGLV has fresh meals that will be made available to people in need. They prioritize people who are homebound and unable to prepare healthy meals due to age or health condition. If someone qualifies for their service, MOWGLV can add them to their delivery routes. They currently deliver to 8 Coplay and 25 Whitehall residents. Meals are delivered Monday through Friday between 10:30M-12:00 pm by volunteers. All meals are heart healthy and meet the state guidelines for senior nutritional requirements. The meals can further be medically tailored to assist with chronic health conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, or difficulty with chewing and swallowing. It takes about one week for an intake to be conducted before meal delivery starts. There is a sliding fee scale for meal fees. Please have the senior or family member call MOWGLV at 610-691-1030. From the Meals on Wheels website https://mowglv.org/faqs/ I am putting this info in the article because not everyone has computer access or Wi-Fi. These are questions & answers on their frequently asked questions page. Please let people know about their service. MOWGLV is here to help those in need and have done a fantastic job with helping homebound adults. They are feeding more people than ever as all hunger organizations have seen increased food demand. 1. Who is eligible to receive Meals on Wheels? Eligibility is determined by need. Clients must be over the age of 18, be homebound and unable to prepare meals, be unable to meet basic nutritional needs, either temporarily or permanently, have no reliable options for nutritious daily meals, and reside in Lehigh or Northampton Counties. 2. I have a family member in need of meal deliveries. They live with another family member who does not prepare meals. Do they still qualify? Yes, if the person in need of meals is unable to prepare meals while the other family member is not home. 3. Can I sign my family member up for meal delivery? Of course! We receive referrals from any number of sources. The person you are referring for meals must agree to the service before we follow up to determine eligibility. Thank you all for making a difference in people’s lives. We are all here to help our community. I wanted to write part of this week’s article on Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania (SHFB). This is to inform you what they do for the community and what they do for Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative. The SHFB info comes directly from their website https://shfblv.org/
“SHFB mission is to obtain food and distribute it to people in need through area non-profits, and to provide resources for education and advocacy to end hunger. In October 1982, the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, Inc. (CACLV) created the Lehigh Valley Food Bank (LVFB). Starting with a network of about 15 agencies in Lehigh and Northampton counties, what has come to be known as Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB), today, serves 200 agencies in a six-county area: Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, and Wayne counties. From the beginning the two-fold objective of SHFB was 1) the distribution of food to needy people; and 2) the elimination of waste in the food industry. To discourage food industry waste, SHFB seeks donations of unsaleable, but edible, product from local companies.” Second Harvest receives funding from the Federal, State and Local Governments along with private donations from the general public. WCHI and other Food Pantries in Lehigh County do benefit from food purchased by Second Harvest with Lehigh County funding. WCHI has three accounts with SHFB. I wanted to inform you of the poundage of food we obtained and the value of the food received in 2021. The food that WCHI orders is FREE to us. WCHI could never serve as many households and residents as we do without our partnership with SHFB. A HUGE shout out THANK YOU goes to all the employees of Second Harvest. They all have been wonderful to work with. Soup Kitchen account is for our Children’s Summer Feeding Program (CSFP) and our Free Community Meals. While most faith based partners do not request food from WCHI to prepare the bi-monthly meals, some sites do need some food items. Food for the CSFP makes up 99% of this amount. WCHI ordered 22,344 pounds of food for a value of $22,977. Snack Pack Pals (SPP). WCHI fully administers the Snack Pack Pal Program (SPP) with assistance from WCSD and St Elizabeth’s Regional School. We had food items left over from the CSFP that we used for SPP. Therefore, we did not order as many items as we normally would. Total food ordered 1,628 pounds for a value of $2,062. Our Food Pantry public attendance has more than doubled in one year and I reported our numbers last week. For 2021, WCHI ordered 122,297 pounds of food with a value of $133,068. WCHI does not have this kind of cash on hand. SHFB is not a grocery store and not all items are available every week. SHFB provides WCHI 100% of our refrigerator and frozen foods and 97% of our fresh produce. The remaining 3% produce comes from our WCHI garden and the Knights of Columbus at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church. This 3% was used for our CSFP. The rest was all given to our Pantry guests. I put out requests for items WCHI needs that SHFB does not have. Our community has been so generous in supplying many of the items we need. You can see these items at https://tinyurl.com/WCHIPantryList Note: Refrigerated, frozen, perishable or homemade items WILL NOT be accepted due to food safety liability reasons. Thank you all for your continued support to accomplish Our Mission: To alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. |
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