Shari's update - 2/13

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.
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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!!