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I wanted to write this week’s article on Volunteerism. A heartfelt THANK YOU is extended to every one of our selfless volunteers, who help in so many ways to feed the food insecure residents of Whitehall and Coplay. I also want to thank the volunteers, who are not normally scheduled for distribution days, who helped while others were on vacation this summer. With everyone’s time and talents, our WCHI volunteers are feeding almost 1,000 residents a month. As our Pantry guest attendance continues to grow, we truly need many more volunteers to help WCHI both behind the scenes and during pantry day distributions.
There are a lot of behind-the-scenes activities that occur throughout the month i.e. 1. ordering and picking up food from Second Harvest Food Bank; 2. Purchasing food and toiletries from several local stores; 3. Loading our vehicles with the products and bringing them back to the Pantry; 4. These items then get carried by hand into the pantry and put on rolling racks and sent to their dedicated areas in the Pantry; 5. These items are loaded onto skids or rolling racks and marked State and USDA Food or general donations from the public; 6. Then the inventory is stocked on appropriate racks for our Pantry guests to choose from during distribution days. On distribution days, our volunteers do specific jobs including: 1. Welcoming our guests as they arrive; 2. Registering our guests; 3. Shopping with our guests throughout the Pantry; 4. Providing fresh produce from our WCHI Garden; along with any produce available from both Second Harvest Food Bank and grown by Whitehall and Coplay residents in their personal gardens; 5. Providing dog and cat food when available; and 6. Unloading the bagged or boxed items from our shopping carts into our guests’ cars. WCHI is extremely fortunate to have dedicated volunteers. Some are retired; some work and help when they can; and others work during the day and hep in the evening on distribution days. We have teachers and others from several school districts, that help us over the summer while school is closed. Several volunteers are students aged 12-17. And some of our pantry guests are working on their clearances to help us, too. “Volunteering is important for many reasons including stress reduction, combating depression and providing a sense of purpose. It offers essential help to worthwhile causes, people in need, and the wider community. Volunteerism is also important because it helps eliminate poverty and improve basic health and education.” Calvin Holbrook https://tinyurl.com/5dyk8xsu WCHI is a 100% volunteer based 501c3 Non -Profit Charity. No one receives a salary. Can you or someone you know volunteer with us? You will love your fellow volunteers. Because we do work with children, we are all required by the State to obtain full child abuse clearances. Please go to https://tinyurl.com/32cndjdw to find out more. Do not let the list intimidate you. Many are read and sign forms. We do reimburse for fingerprinting. I have completed the clearances in less than two weeks, and I have a full-time job. There is no time frame limit for completion, but all clearances must be received so we can email you volunteer opportunities. Once we have everything, the clearances are good for five years. Students, 12-17 years old, just need to read and sign a code of conduct form and a WCHI form signed by a parent. WCHI does have school clubs help us and individual students also. We do sign school forms for community service hours. Please email, Sylvia Lee, our Volunteer Chair at [email protected] with any questions you may have. WCHI needs the following food items: Any kind of boxed pasta; macaroni and cheese; chicken noodle, tomato, and vegetable soups; and low salt canned mixed vegetables. Fresh Produce is also appreciated from your personal gardens. These items can be dropped or shipped to Shari Noctor, Re/Max Unlimited, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall, PA 18052. My office is open for deliveries Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm and is closed on the weekends. Thank you and have a great week!!
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8/3/23 Pantry Garden article Contributed by Gwen Herzog, WCHI Pantry Garden Chair
What do you get when you combine sunny, hot days, warm nights, ample rain, great soil, well-established plants, and a great group of volunteers? You get one rocking garden! I am writing this article on July 27th and this week we were able to pick 47 zucchini, 22 yellow squash, 28 bell peppers, and 6 tomatoes. Our zucchini and yellow squash beds are really loaded up with plants and wow – they keep producing and producing. Even with all we picked in July, there is a constant supply of new growth which means a constant supply of new vegetables to pick. I’m not going to lie, when we were planting the seeds, I did drop 3-5 seeds in each hole I dug, so there are lots and lots of plants in each bed. So many that it can sometimes be a challenge to monitor and get in there to pick. I also think that from the time I arrive at the garden to cut the grass and when I get ready to leave, the zucchini have grown larger! I know this is not likely the case, but I’m sticking to my story. At the beginning of July, a large quantity of tomato plants in pots were dropped to Shari Noctor’s office. We promptly planted them in a portion of our “U” bed, caged, and watered them. While they are a little smaller than the rest of the tomato plants, they are growing well and about to flower. Thank you to our mystery donor for this great gift! As you know, with any vegetable garden there will be issues. After treating our eggplants for flea beetles, we are now seeing lots of flowers and a few small eggplants. The groundhogs have also seen the small eggplants and have taken a few bites, so this bed was fenced. In early July the leaves of our pepper plants started getting eaten prompting treatment, but pepper production has not been impacted. While it has been exciting to see some of our early tomatoes change color, the groundhogs have been eating the change. The tomato bed has therefore been fenced but it is not fully deterring these determined critters, so more aggressive action will have to be taken. As I mentioned in my last two articles, WCHI is a Lehigh Valley Plant-A-Row drop off center. If our pantry cannot give away donated produce through our monthly food distribution or at our free community meals, it will be shared with another food pantry. On July 24th we donated 18.1 pounds of vegetables we grew at our WCHI garden along with donations to the food pantry at St. Stephen’s Church. Don’t forget, any extra produce you grow will help to feed a food insecure household when you donate it to WCHI and Lehigh Valley Plant-A-Row. Call or text me at 610-379-6823 to arrange for pick up or you may drop it at Re/Max Unlimited Real Estate at 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall M-F 9 am– 5 pm. Although it is hot outside, we are planning our fall weather crops. Our plan is to get winter squash seeds into the ground very soon and try again to grow some cabbage and cauliflower. We plan to purchase some plants from The Seed Farm in Emmaus. Located at 5854 Vera Cruz Road, The Seed Farm will be holding their fall plant sale Saturday, August 12th and Sunday, August 13th. A partner of Second Harvest, plants are grown using organic practices. Why not try some fall crops in your own garden? We always need help to weed, water, plant, harvest, and control ground hogs. Please join us at the Mickley-Prydun Farm at 3540 South Ruch Street, Whitehall on Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. We love having visitors! In case you were wondering, here is our year-to-date harvested vegetable tally: 129 zucchini, 80 yellow squash, 21 bags of radishes, 15 tomatoes, and 28 bell peppers. Happy Gardening! July 31st is National Avocado Day. WCHI offered frozen avocados to our Pantry Guests at both our July 13th and July 20th food distributions.
From FeedingPA - “Avocados are known for their "good" fats. Monosaturated fat, the main type of fat in avocado, can help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the blood which may help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. If you're a little unsure about giving avocado a try, consider adding some to a smoothie. It brings a delicious creaminess without an overpowering flavor. How to Cut an Avocado. You will need 1 avocado, a cutting board, a sharp knife, and a spoon is optional.
Below “The History timeline and more info on avocados from https://nationaltoday.com/national-avocado-day/ 8000 BC - Avocados eaten in Mexico. Archaeologists have found evidence that wild avocados were gathered and eaten in central Mexico. 3000 BC - Avocado trees grown. Researchers believe that Mesoamerican tribes like the Inca, the Olmec and the Maya grew domesticated avocado trees. 1696 - The avocado is named. Naturalist, Sir Hans Sloane, names “the avocado or alligator pear-tree" in his catalog of Jamaican plants. 1833 - Welcome to the U.S. Horticulturist, Henry Perrine, first plants avocados in Florida. 1950s - Into the mainstream. Avocados become commercially available in the U.S., with people mostly adding them to salads. WHY WE LOVE NATIONAL AVOCADO DAY They're extremely healthy. Avocados played a huge role in the health food revival in the U.S. a generation ago and for good reason. They're packed with potassium to keep your blood pressure lower, oleic acid for reducing inflammation, fiber for your metabolism and antioxidants that keep your eyes healthy. They're incredibly versatile in the kitchen. Avocados are nothing if not a culinary imagination booster! We're not just talking guacamole and toast. You can use them as a base for salad dressing, chilled soup, ice cream, pudding, pasta sauce, bread and lots more. 5 TASTY FACTS ABOUT AVOCADOS 1. Super treat -Football fans consume 53.5 million pounds of guacamole on Super Bowl Sundays. 2. Berry good - Because it's a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary, an avocado is actually a berry. 3. They're #1 - Avocados contain the most protein and fiber of any fruit. 4. Count 'em -There are 1,062 varieties of avocado. 5. Gator guac - In Jamaica, avocados were once called "alligator pears.” I hope you enjoyed this article. Have a great week!! UNDERSTANDING DATES ON FOOD PACKAGING
Second Harvest Food Bank selected WCHI to be one of four Healthy Pantries in Lehigh County, which offers healthier low fat and low salt products, when possible. WCHI obtains a lot of great information from both Second Harvest and PA Healthy Pantry Initiative (PA HPI), which is a project of Feeding America. I wanted to provide “Date Facts” since consumers get confused what the date on food products means. Baby formula only (not baby food) needs to be thrown out and not fed to a baby after its “Use-By” date, because at that time there is no more nutritional value left in the product. The information below comes directly from Feeding America - Resources for Pantries. “Product dating is not required by federal regulations except on infant formula. Dates are provided to help stores and people know when food is of the best quality. However, the dates are not indicators of the food’s safety. Understanding the dates can reduce throwing away perfectly good food. There are many different dates that can be found on food packaging. Here are some examples:
How can you tell if a food is safe to eat? If handled properly, a product should still be safe and wholesome even if the package date is passed during storage.
I hope you found this info helpful. I will be providing more interesting topics from Feeding America, Feeding PA, and Second Harvest Food Bank in future articles. WCHI requests the following food items for our Food Pantry: Canned fruit, any kind of boxed pasta, and condiments such as salad dressings, ketchup, mayo, relish, and pickles. Right now, we have enough mustard. Also. If anyone has an overabundance of home-grown vegetables and/or spices, they also can be dropped off to my ReE/Max Unlimited office, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. Thank you and have a great week!! I am pleased to provide statistics on our Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative (WCHI) Food Pantry attendance for the period July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023. All Food Pantries, that work with government supplied food, are on this fiscal year.
WCHI provided 48 food distributions. We report unduplicated data, which is counting households and guests only one time - no matter how many times they attend our Pantry. WCHI has accurate data for people registered for the entire year. Our unduplicated numbers for this fiscal year are: 485 households; 1,812 guests consisting of 688 children (ages 0-17); 843 adults (ages 18-59) and 281 seniors (ages 60+). Through our computer software, WCHI also has counted every guest that have attended at least two or more times during the year. These numbers are incredible and WCHI is proud to be helping so many residents - 10,844 people consisting of 3,910 children, 4,792 adults, and 2,142 seniors. WCHI sincerely thanks Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB), the Lehigh County Commissioners for grants WCHI has requested and obtained, and the generous public who consistently provides us with both food and monetary donations. SHFB is not a grocery store, and their food items are extremely limited. Without all these partners working with WCHI, we could never feed as many people as we do. Thank you everyone!!! Our Pantry is open the 2nd and 3rd Thursday of the month 9:30-1 pm and 4:30-7 pm by appointment only. We close the doors promptly at 1 and 7pm. Our reservations are usually 95% reserved. Guests sometimes forget their appointments, get sick, or do not have transportation that day. New guests are always welcome, but appointments are strongly recommended. WCHI works indirectly with USDA through the PA Dept of Agriculture and though SHFB to provide food to our income eligible guests. “The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a federal program that helps supplement the diets of low-income Americans, including elderly people, by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. Through TEFAP, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) purchases a variety of nutritious, high-quality USDA Foods, and makes those foods available to state distributing agencies. The amount of food each state receives out of the total amount of food provided is based on the number of unemployed persons and the number of people with incomes below the poverty level in the state. States provide the food to local agencies that they have selected, usually food banks, which in turn distribute the food to local organizations, such as soup kitchens and food pantries that directly serve the public. These funds must, in part, be passed down to local agencies. TEFAP is administered at the federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service, an agency of the USDA. Updated: 01/06/2020” https://www.fns.usda.gov/tefap/tefap-fact-sheet I wanted to explain briefly how we qualify each of our Pantry guests. Since we are now in July, new PA Dept of Agriculture “Self-Declaration of Need” forms must be updated for each household receiving food from our Pantry. Typically, this form is reviewed and signed once a year. “The Emergency Food Assistance Program 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 guidelines listed below. The recipient circles the entire line that applies to their Household Size, understanding they must be at, or below, the income level indicated to be eligible for program benefits.” I am happy that the household income limits were increased for the new fiscal year. The Total Household Income is based on 185% of Poverty. This month our guests will verify their income as mentioned on the forms (no proof of income is required at the time of registration). The guest then signs digitally, which is applied to their registration form in our computer software program. The process goes seamlessly but will add approximately 5 minutes per guest at registration. The household income is based on the day the guest comes into the Pantry. If their income goes up and they no longer qualify, the guest needs to let us know and WCHI cannot give them food. On the other hand, if a person has had a decrease in income and now, they qualify, they need to contact us to make an appointment to become a new guest. We have this many times with seasonal workers. WCHI is here to help food insecure Whitehall and Coplay residents. Please call us at 484-225-0358 with any questions. Submitted by Gwen Herzog, Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative’s Vegetable Garden Chair
It has been another exciting month for the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Garden. When we were finally graced with early June rain, all our vegetable plants began to flourish! We now have small peppers on our plants, and several tomato plants have begun to flower. Our eggplants’ leaves started to become lacy due to flea beetles, so these plants were dusted. Some of the radishes started protruding out of the ground and we were able to pick about 90 so far. Although I am behind on thinning the red beets and carrots, both are growing well. The parsley may be ready for a small first cutting for distribution this month. Our beds of zucchini and yellow squash are really taking off and I anticipate by the time you read this article, we may have little ones hanging on the vines. What we need now are hot days, warm nights, and regular rainfall to help our gardens grow. Fingers crossed! One major addition to the pantry garden is a new rainwater collection system. Thank you to the Whitehall Township Public Works Department for installing a rain gutter on the back of our shed with down spouting into our water storage tank. Installation was completed Thursday, June 22nd just in time for the weekend’s rain and as a result, our tank is now filled to the top. Many, many thanks to the Public Works team and to Mayor Harakal for supporting this valuable project! I also want to thank the Hockey Fire Department and our volunteers who brought water to the garden during the dry spring season. If you use the Ironton Rail Trail loop, you have surely seen our WCHI Garden. Like me, you have probably also wondered why we have so many grassy areas inside the garden fence compared with the amount of planting beds. Yes, we have space and opportunities. One of our garden volunteers has been working on clearing a space for another bed. In fact, this newly created space is almost ready to use. Due to its proximity to the outer fence, we discussed possibly having to protect it from deer. As luck would have it, in mid-June we received a donation of used fence posts and mesh fencing from our Pantry volunteers Pat and Bob, which will be perfect to use around this new bed. Speaking of planting new crops, we kept our “U” shaped bed open in anticipation of receiving donated vegetable or herb plants. If you find that you have any extra plants, please drop them at Shari Noctor’s Re/Max Unlimited office at 1080 Schadt Avenue, Whitehall, PA or give me a call at 610-379-6823 to arrange for pick up. In last month’s article, I announced that the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is now part of the Lehigh Valley Plant-A-Row community. The week of June 19th, neighbors of mine, Fran and Walt, donated 4 lbs. of garden lettuce which we were not able to immediately distribute at WCHI. Fortunately, we used the Plant-A-Row community network and shared it with another local pantry that was distributing food the next day! As a reminder, any extra, fresh produce from your garden or orchard that you donate will first be distributed at our WCHI Pantry or at our Free Community Meals. If neither of these events will be taking place within a few days, your donation will be shared with local Plant-A-Row pantries that will be able to immediately distribute it. Nothing will go to waste. Fresh produce may be donated at Re/Max Unlimited and placed on the table in the foyer or give me a call me at 610-379-6823 to arrange for pick up. Have a great July and happy gardening! Submitted by Gwen Herzog, Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative’s Vegetable Garden Chair
It has been another exciting month for the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Garden. When we were finally graced with early June rain, all our vegetable plants began to flourish! We now have small peppers on our plants, and several tomato plants have begun to flower. Our eggplants’ leaves started to become lacy due to flea beetles, so these plants were dusted. Some of the radishes started protruding out of the ground and we were able to pick about 90 so far. Although I am behind on thinning the red beets and carrots, both are growing well. The parsley may be ready for a small first cutting for distribution this month. Our beds of zucchini and yellow squash are really taking off and I anticipate by the time you read this article, we may have little ones hanging on the vines. What we need now are hot days, warm nights, and regular rainfall to help our gardens grow. Fingers crossed! One major addition to the pantry garden is a new rainwater collection system. Thank you to the Whitehall Township Public Works Department for installing a rain gutter on the back of our shed with down spouting into our water storage tank. Installation was completed Thursday, June 22nd just in time for the weekend’s rain and as a result, our tank is now filled to the top. Many, many thanks to the Public Works team and to Mayor Harakal for supporting this valuable project! I also want to thank the Hockey Fire Department and our volunteers who brought water to the garden during the dry spring season. If you use the Ironton Rail Trail loop, you have surely seen our WCHI Garden. Like me, you have probably also wondered why we have so many grassy areas inside the garden fence compared with the amount of planting beds. Yes, we have space and opportunities. One of our garden volunteers has been working on clearing a space for another bed. In fact, this newly created space is almost ready to use. Due to its proximity to the outer fence, we discussed possibly having to protect it from deer. As luck would have it, in mid-June we received a donation of used fence posts and mesh fencing from our Pantry volunteers Pat and Bob, which will be perfect to use around this new bed. Speaking of planting new crops, we kept our “U” shaped bed open in anticipation of receiving donated vegetable or herb plants. If you find that you have any extra plants, please drop them at Shari Noctor’s Re/Max Unlimited office at 1080 Schadt Avenue, Whitehall, PA or give me a call at 610-379-6823 to arrange for pick up. In last month’s article, I announced that the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is now part of the Lehigh Valley Plant-A-Row community. The week of June 19th, neighbors of mine, Fran and Walt, donated 4 lbs. of garden lettuce which we were not able to immediately distribute at WCHI. Fortunately, we used the Plant-A-Row community network and shared it with another local pantry that was distributing food the next day! As a reminder, any extra, fresh produce from your garden or orchard that you donate will first be distributed at our WCHI Pantry or at our Free Community Meals. If neither of these events will be taking place within a few days, your donation will be shared with local Plant-A-Row pantries that will be able to immediately distribute it. Nothing will go to waste. Fresh produce may be donated at Re/Max Unlimited and placed on the table in the foyer or give me a call me at 610-379-6823 to arrange for pick up. Have a great July and happy gardening! Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley (MOW), BrightStar Care of Stroudsburg & Allentown, and Compassionate Care Hospice partnered with Friends of Pete to present a “Spring into Giving Food Drive” to provide needed food items for the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative (WCHI) Food Pantry on May 18th from 4-7 PM. This event was held at the MOW’s location at 1302 N Sherman St, Allentown. The event also included 35 local business vendors, networking opportunities, snacks, prizes and tastings courtesy of Sherman Street Brewery and Tolino Vineyards. Many food donations also came from residents of the Midway Manor Housing Development across the street from MOW.
This was the 4th Food Pantry event MOW has hosted to provide much needed food to local Food Pantries. The other three prior Food Pantry Beneficiaries include: Allentown Ecumenical Food Pantry, Central Moravian Food Pantry, and Easton Area Neighborhood Center. MOW printed and distributed fliers for this event, which included the sponsors, the time and place of the event, and the needed food items from our WCHI website https://tinyurl.com/yc2vdns3 Food donations poured into the MOW parking lot for the entire three hours!! WCHI received cereal, instant oatmeal variety packs, pasta/spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, easy to open canned vegetables, canned chicken and tuna in water or pouches; reduced sodium chicken noodle and vegetable soups; canned beans; canned fruit and fruit cups in water or light syrup, plus other food items, and monetary donations. We also received a huge box of tote bags for our guests to shop at our Pantry from Patriot Home Care. WCHI also supports MOW by providing additional monthly food from our Pantry to 8-12 homebound MOW clients. Karen Haberern, a MOW representative, who is also a WCHI Volunteer and WCHI Board member, delivers the shelf stable food to these households. They are also included in our monthly food distribution household attendance numbers. Overall, MOW serves 2 adults and 67 seniors ranging from 38-98 years old in Whitehall and serves 11 seniors ranging from 61-92 years old in Coplay. An interesting fact is that MOW prepares and delivers 24,000 meals a month to their clients that live in their market area: Lehigh, Northampton, and lower Carbon Counties. For more info on Meals on Wheels, please go to https://mowglv.org I have known Erik McGaughey, when he was at the American Cancer Society, and I chaired the Relay for Life here in Whitehall back in 2012 and 2013. Erik is now the CEO of MOW since 2022. Congratulations, Erik!! He and I think a lot alike. Erik says “Changing one life is a big deal! With what is happening between the Food Panties and the work of Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley, we are changing neighborhoods, cities, and the entire greater Lehigh Valley.” And as I always say, “WCHI is making a huge difference in people’s lives.” Both Meals on Wheels and WCHI need more volunteers, more financial contributions, and we both want to be able to serve many, many more people who need our assistance. You too, can host a food drive for WCHI. We currently need canned fruit, canned tuna, any kind of pasta, and canned beans (kidney, black, pinto, chickpeas, etc) for our June and July food distributions. We are feeding close to 1,000 Whitehall and Coplay residents a month. These items can be dropped off at my Re/Max Unlimited Real Estate office, 1080 Schadt Ave, Whitehall Monday through Friday 9am-5pm. Monetary donations are also appreciated. Make your check payable to WCHI or Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative and write food in the memo section and mail or drop off to me at my office mentioned above. WCHI is a 501c3 public charity and your donation may be tax deductible. Please check with your financial adviser. A big THANK YOU is extended to Meals on Wheels, and everyone associated with the fantastic food drive, held on May 18th at the MOW site. WCHI and all our guests thank you for your generosity and for being your selected Food Pantry this year!! Written by Gwen Herzog, Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative’s Vegetable Garden Chair
What an amazing week we had at the WCHI garden! With the limited amount of rain recently, I was able to move the lawn mower deck down one notch and not stall out the mower. The groundhog re-opened the giant hole and once again, I was able to see it and avoid it. I refilled the hole with dirt, rocks, and the scrapings from underneath the mower deck. It appears that this critter has been feasting on our cauliflower and cabbage plants, but surprisingly not the Brussels sprouts. Earlier this year, we had a robin build a nest and lay eggs in one of the flower boxes on our garden shed. A couple of weeks back the eggs hatched and suddenly there were four babies. I have a fear of birds, but since mama robin flew away to the fence whenever I got near, I felt comfortable observing these little ones close up. Monday the nest was abandoned, so I want to believe mama took her babies elsewhere with less activity. Look for photos of the hatchlings on our WCHI Facebook page. On May 20th, Township Commissioner, Jeff Warren, graciously pressure washed the inside and outside of our water tank. Late last summer we experienced a small algae bloom and the inside of the tank became badly discolored. Jeff was committed to getting the tank looking good before it was filled this year. It took a lot of time and energy, but the tank looks GREAT. Thanks again, Jeff! Tuesday evening was our first garden work night. Thanks to our volunteers, we were able to remove boards and cardboard, prep beds, plant, weed, and water. Sue Butchinski planted the pepper, tomato, and eggplant plants. Sylvia Lee and Jenn Dietz cleared beds and weeded, Tom Noctor rototilled, and I planted zucchini and yellow squash seeds. Finally, we all watered everything. Look for new garden photos on our Facebook page. Wednesday evening the Hokey Fire Department delivered water into our newly cleaned tank. It may be another dry summer. Thank you to Mark Bilder and the entire Hokey Fire Department, now and in advance, for all the water they will deliver this year! On Tuesday evening May 30th, the garden work plan includes: thin the radish, red beet, and carrot seedlings, prep and plant additional beds, cage the tomato and pepper plants, plant sunflower and other flower seeds, weed, and water. We welcome garden volunteers, but clearances are required. Please see www.tinyurl.com/WCHIforms for more details. In May, WCHI’s Pantry provided food for almost 1,000 of our Whitehall and Coplay neighbors. Many of our guests tell us of the meals they will prepare using the fresh produce they receive. As you are planting your garden, why not plant an extra row or an extra plant and donate the vegetables to our Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative? All produce received will be distributed to our Pantry guests and given to our guests attending our Free Community Meals. You may drop your garden bounty at Shari Noctor’s Re/Max Unlimited office,1080 Schadt Avenue, Whitehall Monday-Friday 9-5. WCHI is also accepting any extra vegetable plants you may have. Call or text me 610-379-6823 to arrange for drop-off or pick up. Thank you in advance for all donations! This week we learned that Shari Noctor’s Re/Max office will also be a local drop off site for Plant-A-Row Lehigh Valley, an organization that works throughout our local communities to help gardeners find a place to take extra produce. We look forward to this opportunity! Finally, keep an eye out for our WCHI Garden Sign to be hung on our garden fence. You will be able to see it from the Ironton Rail Trail. Happy gardening! Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative (WCHI) is a PA Healthy food Pantry Initiative (PA HPI) as mentioned in previous newspaper articles. We strive to improve our Pantry food choices by offering low/no salt and low sugar food items, when possible. And we work closely with our Second Harvest Food Bank HPI Coordinator, Kim Slack, on a variety of healthy goals included food tastings and recipes during distribution days.
WCHI is also partnering with Penn State Extension Lehigh County to provide their FREE Nutrition Links program to our Pantry guests and others who qualify for the program. Julie Davitt, who is a Nutrition Education Adviser for Penn State and a WCHI Board member, will be teaching upcoming food educational classes. The Nutrition Links classes will be offered this summer and in October in the morning for 1.5 hours each for four consecutive weeks. The location will be in the white social building behind our Pantry at the end of the Church parking lot. More info will be posted on our FB page and on our website https://tinyurl.com/WCHIprograms in the coming weeks. This info comes directly from https://extension.psu.edu/nutrition-links “Participants in this free program complete in-person lessons featuring healthy eating tips on smart shopping, food preparation, and delicious recipes, as well as food safety lessons. Classes include hands-on activities and cooking demonstrations to reinforce the learning process. Our evaluation data demonstrates the effectiveness of the program's impact on participants' behaviors in food selection, dietary intake, management of resources, and food safety. Participants are taught how to make positive changes to achieve good nutrition and health; Control portion sizes; Practice food resource management skills; Practice food safety in preparation; Practice safe storage and handling of food; Increase physical activity. 93% of participants made positive dietary changes. 78% of participants showed improvement in food resource management practices. Nutrition Links provides research-based nutrition education to help people and families with limited resources enhance their nutrition, increase their physical activity, and develop life skills needed for self-sufficiency and better health. Our classes are a very rewarding experience for everyone, impacting the health and well-being of the entire family. We partner with many agencies in the community to enhance the services offered and reach the limited-resource audience. Nutrition Links is federally funded and supported by local resources/dollars. Funds come from the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). Nutrition Links Programs are for Families with young children (under the age of 19) living in either rural or urban areas who are responsible for the planning, purchasing, and preparing of the family's food; Pregnant women; Pregnant and Parenting Teens; School-age youth (5 - 19 years of age); Preschoolers and their parents.” For more information, please contact Julie Davit at [email protected] Thank you and have a great week!! |
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