One of the many lessons learned from living with the COVID-19 pandemic the past 18 months is the reminder that hunger can happen to anyone.
The effects of COVID on health, jobs and the educational and social networks on which people rely left many struggling to make ends meet, creating an unprecedented and sustained rise in food insecurity. Food charities and food assistance programs experienced steep increases in demand for services, a demand that they expect will last beyond the pandemic.
During September, state government and Feeding Pennsylvania joined with food banks to recognize this increased demand as a theme of Hunger Action Month and to encourage continued support for Pennsylvania’s charitable food network.
“Food insecurity is everyone’s issue, and it will take all of us to stand up against it during Hunger Action Month and every month if we want to end it,” said the state’s first lady, Frances Wolf.
In the counties of our region, organizations are taking action against hunger in various ways:
• Urban growers in the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Harvest program this year donated 13,285 pounds of produce, a new milestone in the effort to bring more fresh food to urban areas. PHS Harvest is focused on increasing food production by empowering participants to plant food crops and share them with neighbors and food banks. About 2,600 participants include community gardens, religious groups, schools and camps.
• In Berks County, Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank has begun an expansion project to build two cold storage units that will increase storage of refrigerated and frozen food for distribution. Demand has surpassed current cold storage capacity, meaning the agency has had to rent space offsite, store food in refrigerated trucks it leased or even turn down donations, President Jay Worrall told the Reading Eagle. The project will boost Helping Harvest’s fresh food storage capacity by 50%. The work is expected to cost about $900,000, which Helping Harvest is counting on its donors to cover during a fundraising campaign now underway.
• In Chester County, the focus on Hunger Action brought together state and West Chester University officials to consider food insecurity on college campuses. According to a 2019 survey conducted by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, around one in three students attending four-year colleges in Philadelphia struggles to meet basic needs. State Sen. Carolyn Comitta has introduced the Hunger-Free College Campuses Act, Senate Bill 719. The bill, which was introduced in the House as House Bill 1363, calls for providing up to $1 million in grants to higher education institutions to help them tackle food insecurity. It would also direct further study on the issue of food insecurity at Pennsylvania colleges and universities, in order to inform the development of additional long-term solutions.
• Another vulnerable group — senior citizens — is the subject of an initiative between the Pennsylvania Senior Food Box Program, which provides life-sustaining meal deliveries and nutrition services to eligible older Pennsylvanians, and DoorDash. More than 300,000 Pennsylvania seniors are eligible for the Pennsylvania Senior Food Box Program, but only about 35,000 are enrolled to receive it this year, often because they lack transportation to acquire food, a gap that the delivery service DoorDash will help fill.
Hunger is a problem in Pennsylvania, particularly in rural or poor urban neighborhoods with insufficient access to healthy, affordable or fresh foods.
Worrall of Helping Harvest is the vice chairman of Feeding Pennsylvania, which represents all of the Feeding America food banks statewide, and he said the increased high demand that local counties are facing is typical of what’s happening across the state. He also said that food agencies are working to increase distribution of fresh foods and meats to bolster healthy eating.
Hunger Action can be as simple as growing vegetables to give to those in need or as complicated as building freezers to prevent spoilage. Working together in these partnerships helps ensure that no one fights hunger alone.
Source: Berkshire mont
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