The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which distributes food to Valley food pantries, is well funded and stocked going into the holiday season.
The Bank distributes food to more than 1,000 partners: food pantries, senior homes, military families and school backpack programs in Central Pennsylvania counties, said Executive Director Joe Arthur, on Thursday.
One of those backpack programs is the Selinsgrove School District's Meals for Seals.
That six-year-old program, which serves 150 students, is struggling for monetary donations — which is critical to buying food from the Central Pa. Food Bank, said Lori Weir, Meals for Seals coordinator and one of the program's founders.
"We received some food from the Red Ribbon week [where students collected food donations]," Weir said, "but that is the only donation I've received in months. It has been a long time since anybody has donated anything. We have had a couple of churches that did food drives for us. Other than that it has been very light. Monetary donations are way down. That's an issue."
What they need are canned soups, dried cereal, canned pasta, Mac and Cheese in a cup, she said. "Kid-friendly foods."
Every Friday, the kids from all four schools in the district pick up food.
"We could use some donations," Weir said. "The way that people can donate is to write a check out to the Snyder County Coalition for Kids. With that money we go to the food bank."
Meeting its Goals
The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, delivers food to several food pantries in the area, including Shiloh United Church of Christ, said pastor Mary Schmotzer, on Thursday.
Shiloh is the host site for the Food Pantry, which is located on the bottom floor of the church, in two large closet spaces. Food is handed out once a month on a Saturday. This past Saturday was a big Thanksgiving giveaway called "Feed a Friend."
The Shiloh Pantry is well stocked and they get a lot of their food — other than that donated locally — from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Schmotzer said.
"Our pantry space is filled with non-perishable food," she said. "From the Food Bank, we get fresh produce and meat."
Central Bank well stocked
"From a food standpoint, demand and supply, our clients' needs are pretty steady through the year, with a few peak periods," Arthur said. "So we feel pretty good. Deliveries at this time of year are still pretty steady, although we do have special holiday distributions. That is additive to normal work. There is increased activity there ... turkey distributions, holiday distributions that we support. That all picks up about now."
Early returns through the first week in November are meeting the Bank's goals. "This is the biggest time period for us, in terms of raising funds as we move toward Thanksgiving and through the holiday season to Dec. 31," Arthur said.
The Food Bank raises half of its annual $16 million budget within three months, October through December.
"From the general public we have to raise several million dollars. I don't have hard numbers but that is the level we have to raise at," he said.
Part of the $16 million comes from government programs, Arthur explained. "Giving by people, giving by companies, giving by foundations, by faith-based organizations — all of that adds up to about half of our budget."
Food at the Bank
Through the Thanksgiving season, turkeys are very important as they get close to Christmas, Arthur said.
"Hams are also important," he said. "We set a goal of 5,000 donated turkeys. We generally get pretty close to that. Giant Foods have recently donated 1,500 turkeys. That's an increase and a good head start on our reaching our goal."
"We feel good overall food-wise," Arthur said. "The generosity from our food donors, which tend to be food businesses, continue to be strong. Food drives are more of an awareness raiser — food drives account for a small percentage of the food we have. But they continue to be strong."
This year, the Food Bank has received some additional help from trade mitigation.
As part of the program to help our farmers and producers, the USDA buys food from farmers and producers around the country. That has created an additional source of really good food for the Food Bank, particularly healthy foods like, frozen meats, pork and chicken, has been very strong. The Bank has received other products like juices and grains. The trade mitigation flow of food, which started last year, continues into 2020.
"That is a big help with our food stocks," Arthur said.
The Food Bank continues to provide fresh vegetables, in addition to what they might get from the USDA.
"Our big support on that comes from our grocery store friends and our Mid-Atlantic Regional Cooperative (MARC)," Arthur explained. "Food coming from MARC continues to grow, and it has been a game-changer in terms of fresh produce year-round. Now, we are guaranteed to have year-round produce."
The Food Bank received more than 3 million pounds of food from MARC last year, which was about 10 percent of the produce that they actually handle.
"Our Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS), is strengthening," Arthur said. "We got a little higher allocation from the Pennsylvania General Assembly, so that is very helpful. All of those things are adding up to good supplies of healthy food."
Weis Markets is a key donor to the Food Bank, Arthur noted.
"They give to us a little bit differently," he said. "They do special in-store fight hunger drives for us. Their stores are plentiful in our area so giving through the store channel is very large. They are a strong partner. They also allow us to acquire some food through their store supply system. A generous amount every year.
Most of the Food Bank food goes to anti-hunger organizations that are working in all the communities: Pantries, shelters, youth programs, senior programs. They also do direct service now through two programs. One is Fresh Express, which is mobile distribution which will go to a housing center where all of the residents are eligible if they wish to be. Another is Military Share, where they are working with veteran's organizations to provide food specific to veterans and active military families that are struggling.
"Our youth programs are more direct services as well," Arthur said. "Those would be backpack and after school programs that we call Kids Cafes.
"Something new is called School Pantries, which some school districts are adopting (in Harrisburg and Williamsport now, but none in the Valley). Instead of a backpack program just for the child, we provide all the food you would need to make healthy foods at home. We are willing to even do a school building if that makes sense."
Going it alone
Not every local food pantry — and certainly not soup kitchens — get their food through the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.
Christie Ziegler, executive director, Haven MInistries' food pantry, said on Thursday, "Things are going really well here in terms of food. There are a number of places that called up and said they were going to do food drives for us. We are always grateful for that. Weis Market helps us a lot."
Haven Ministries doesn't need to deal with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Ziegler said. "We have donations coming in. So we don't need their help."
So far, she said, "We haven't gotten any turkeys. Usually we get about 30. But it's still early. Thanksgiving is late this year. We need kid-friendly foods mostly," she said. "And canned soups, canned pasta products, kid-friendly cereal, canned fruits, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce. We get lots of canned vegetables."
Ziegler said people this year have "definitely been more generous in their giving.
"Weis is generous," she said. "Most people don't know how generous Weis is. They are very humble about their donating."
Haven runs a food pantry. There is no specific day for food pickups, Ziegler said. "But they have to be referred to us by an agency: Children and Youth, a church. Sometimes employers will refer one of their employees here for food. Area Agency on Aging, the V.A., the orders we give them are big — two or three boxes for a single person.
"We do this every day of the week," she said. "Sometimes they come for the food, sometimes it's their caseworker. People can be referred to us every day of the week. But then they can come back in six weeks. Unless it is a family in need. We have the food. We don't like to turn people down."
Soup kitchens, such as The Soup Place, in Sunbury, go it alone as well, said Earl Reed, coordinator.
"We're not a pantry," Reed explained. "We are a kitchen. We cook for a night and give people a hot, nutritious meal. When I started here last January we'd serve 35 people a night. Now we average 50-60 and one recent night we had 120 people here."
"We take just about anything," Reed said, "and if we have extra we let people take food home."
The Soup Place serves a meal every Thursday, 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Faith United Methodist Church, at 203 Arch St..
