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One in seven people are food insecure here in the Lehigh Valley. Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative (WCHI) has been blessed to have enough food to feed 1,000 Whitehall and Coplay residents in August and 1,008 residents in September. October’s numbers are not in yet, since we have not finished the month.
From Feeding America, “The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. This can be a temporary situation for a family or can last a long time. Food insecurity is one way we measure how many people cannot afford food.” If a household needs food, WCHI follows The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) guidelines, which is operated in accordance with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) policy, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. Eligibility is based upon the income limits listed on the form. The recipient verifies, based on their household size, that they are at or below the income level indicated on the form to be eligible for program benefits. The income levels are based on yearly, monthly, or weekly gross income before taxes are taken out. WCHI has a chart to show our guests. For weekly income, a household of 2, cannot receive income higher than $519/week; a household of 5-$1,250/week; and a household of 8-$1,799/per week. The income chart has all the different household sizes and income limits. Our guests circle or highlights the line with their household size, verifies their allowable income, and then signs the form. WCHI needs three things from our community:
Pantry Appointments are Required. Please call 484-225-0358. Guests must show proof of residency with a driver’s license and/or a utility bill or other form of mail coming to their address. We serve guests during their pantry appointment time. If they come early, they need to wait for their appointment time. If they come late, our guest will have to wait for an opening in our WCHI schedule. We are fully booked on both distribution days. We genuinely appreciate our guests arriving at their scheduled appointment time.
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Since Covid-19 paved the way for WCHI to ultimately provide a Food Pantry for Whitehall-Coplay residents, I have been thinking about creating an Advisory Board. This is different from our Board of Directors, who help make top-down decisions.
Our Mission is to alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. The purpose of the WCHI Advisory Board is to help WCHI accomplish our Mission. I want to expand our focus to include different perspectives from a myriad of people that ultimately will help our Pantry guests. And as a group, we will further alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. I would like this new Advisory Board to consist of pantry guests, a couple of our current Board members, faith-based community members, and any local government, business, & service organizations members. This would be a bottom-up approach to help our guests with Pantry improvements. It also will help WCHI obtain a contact and direct information on established community services: i.e., Meals on Wheels, WIC, Department of Aging, etc. We also need more businesses, housing developments, faith based and service organizations to do more organized Food Drives for us and would love a representative to be on our Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will consist of 20-30 area members, though there is no minimum or maximum limit. NO State mandated child abuse clearances are required to be a member of this Advisory Board unless you further volunteer with WCHI. The Advisory Board will have three meetings a year lasting about 90 minutes. Our first meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 17th at 2pm, in our Food Pantry at St John the Baptist Campus in the Christ the King School, at 3024 S Ruch St, Whitehall. (If putting in your GPS, please put in Coplay as the town. Some GPS bring you to our WCHI Garden on the other side of S Ruch St that does not connect to our side of S Ruch). Park in the back parking lot and look for our Pantry signs to come in the side door of the school. If you have any questions about this Advisory Board, please call me on my personal cell 610-730-8067. --- Our next Free Community Meal is on Thursday, October 19th at Redeemed Christian Church of God, 5 N 3rd St, Coplay 610-262-8993. Meals are served from 4-6pm and are while supplies last. --- WCHI fed 1,008 residents in September consisting of 266 households, 365 children, 428 adults, and 215 seniors. We had 27 new households consisting of 29 children, 36 adults, and 21 seniors for a total of 86 newly served guests. The 86 people are included in the 1,008 total people served. Not every registered guest comes every month. This is only the total number of households served for September. --- Please host a Food Drive for WCHI. We are limited as to what we can obtain from Second Harvest Food Bank. Please advise us that you want to and/or are doing a Food Drive. We are starting to collect items for the holidays. A computer list of what is needed can be found at our website. https://tinyurl.com/yc2vdns3 These are the needed items that are on or website: Boxes of Oatmeal, Boxed Potatoes, Canned Fruit (Low Sugar or Light Fruit Syrup), Canned Corn and Canned Peas, Canned Tuna, Cereal, Condiments (mayo, ketchup, mustard), Macaroni and Cheese, Pancake Mix & Syrup, Pasta (all kinds), Ready to Eat Items (Canned Ravioli, Spaghettios, etc), Rice 1lb bagged (brown or white); All kind of Soups (Including: Creamed, Chicken Noodle, Tomato, Vegetable, etc), Spaghetti Sauce, and Stovetop Stuffing Mix. **All food items above can be store brands. ** All Donations are appreciated and may be shipped to or dropped off at Re/Max Unlimited Real Estate, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall, PA 18052 M-F 9am 5pm. Please contact me with anything listed above. Thank you and have a great week!! WCHI Pantry Garden Article - October, 2023
Contributed by Gwen Herzog, WCHI Pantry Garden Chair I am writing this article after another busy work night at the WCHI Pantry Garden. Tonight, we picked a bucket of string beans and several tomatoes. We then planted about 100 onion plants and approximately 30 parsley plants. I picked up the onion plants this morning from The Seed Farm located in Vera Cruz. Sam from TSF told me that if we planted them today, in 6 weeks we should be picking scallions for our guests. The parsley also came from TSF last week. We should be able to pick from these plants this fall and again next year. In addition to the parsley, two weeks ago and again last week we planted several varieties of cold tolerant greens, cabbage, and broccoli, all obtained from TSF. All are growing great! We should be able pick and pack greens for our food distributions in October. The cabbage and broccoli will take a little longer. Last week we planted a variety of herb plants also obtained from TSF. We cut, packed, and distributed dill to pantry guests. Two weeks ago and again last week we re-potted some basil plants from TSF and made them available to our guests at the pantry to grow on their windowsills. The take home plants were so popular that we ran out quickly. Our basil plant giveaway has gotten the attention of TSF and Second Harvest. Next year will reveal how they will grow our success. I want to thank all our community gardeners who have shared their bounty with us. Thanks to all of you, to date, 344.59 pounds of produce have been collected and shared with our WCHI guests and with other, local food pantries through Plant-A-Row. Remember, if you have extra garden produce or herbs you can share, please drop them to RE/MAX Unlimited Real Estate, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please place items on the table on the right side of the vestibule. You may also call or text me at 610-379-6823 to make other arrangements for drop off or pick up. No amount is too large or too small. Don’t forget, as you empty those plants pre-frost, we can be an outlet for your smaller peppers and green tomatoes. Here is our year-to-date garden bounty: 373 zucchini, 225 yellow squash, 24 bags of radishes, 221 tomatoes, 179 peppers, 16 bags of red beets, 75 eggplants, 2 tote bags of parsley, 36 ears of corn, 11 bags of dill, and 9 bags of string beans. In my very first pantry garden article I wrote that the worst day for me, as a gardener, is putting the garden to bed just before the first frost. As the amount of daylight hours get shorter, I am reminded that the time for frost is near. It seems like just last month I couldn’t wait for that first tomato to ripen, but now, at times, I am overwhelmed with tomatoes that are cracked or have been nibbled by a critter or slug and must be tended to. By now, you have frozen tomato sauce, stuffed peppers, and string beans, you have shared your bounty with family, friends, and neighbors, and perhaps you have tried a new recipe, canned red beets, or made hot sauce with your garden’s bounty. These are the memories that will hopefully sustain you through the coming winter. Enjoy the final weeks of your summer garden, and if you are extending your garden with cool weather vegetables, I wish you a bounteous fall! |
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