Helping Harvest held its second annual Celebration of Community and Hope at the DoubleTree hotel by Hilton in Reading.
About 420 people attended the Thursday event that raises funds to support the food bank’s mission to feed the hungry.
Helping Harvest provides food for over 4,000 children throughout Berks and Schuylkill counties each week through its Weekender Program.
Other programs include the Senior Food Box Program, Mobile Markets and recently announced the Maternal Health program.
During the celebration, Jim Boscov, chair of Our City Reading, highlighted Helping Harvest’s Community Kitchen project.
The facility in a formerly vacant warehouse on the campus of the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, will provide 10,000 additional square feet to further Helping Harvest mission.
The space will include a 7,000 square-foot state-of-the-art commercial kitchen where trained chefs will provide culinary-arts skill training to students and volunteers.
The facility will allow Helping Harvest to accept and process bulk food donations into 2,500 meals for weekly distribution to seniors.
Other speakers at the event included Dr. Jennifer Murray, superintendent of the Reading School District; Ryan Hassler, chair of Helping Harvest’s board of directors; the Rev. Jennifer Dee, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Robesonia; and Jay Worrall, president of Helping Harvest.
Musical entertainment was provided by Reading High School students under the direction of music teacher Joseph Smith.
Helping Harvest delivers food to over 350 partners in Berks and Schuylkill counties, and last year provided over $19 million in food to 119,000 residents.
Helping Harvest is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.
Source: Berkshire mont