Central Pennsylvania Food Bank

In 2015, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank adopted a "Bold Goal" which states "By 2025, our collaborative network will provide access to enough nutritious food for everyone struggling with hunger in each of the 27 counties we serve, and we will convene and nurture partnerships to make progress toward ending hunger."

We are making progress toward our Bold Goal every year. We are transforming our youth programs by implementing School Pantry programs in place of traditional backpack programs. Backpack programs traditionally provided children with food for weekends and during school breaks. School Pantries are designed to provide food to the whole family because we know that when a child is hungry, chances are the entire family is hungry. These pantries are set up on the school campus and are "choice pantries," meaning families can pick from traditional pantry items to fresh produce, milk, meat and more.

We have expanded our mobile distribution programs, bringing more food to the rural areas of central PA. Our MilitaryShare program, launched in 2015, is helping veterans and active duty military personnel that struggle with hunger have access to the food they need. We are helping families and individuals sign up for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through our outreach and special Food Stamps Hotline. We are transforming our health initiatives by partnering with healthcare organizations throughout our 27 counties, encouraging them to screen patients for hunger and set up food pantries on site. One of the most successful programs so far has been our partnership with Geisinger Health System's Fresh Food Farmacy, which approaches "Food as Medicine" and brings healthy food options to diabetic patients, helping them to better manage their disease.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank has also increased its government advocacy efforts at the local, state and federal levels, advocating for government policies and programs that help those struggling with hunger, including a strong federal SNAP program.

As a member organization of Feeding America, the national network of food banks, we have access to national food donors and cause marketing campaigns.

On a statewide level, we have partnered with programs such as the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS) and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Produce Cooperative (MARC) to bring fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables to those in need. These partnerships allow us to purchase fresh produce from PA farmers (PASS) and the Port of Philadelphia (MARC), that would otherwise go to waste. This produce is purchased at low cost by the Food Bank and distributed to our partner agencies and programs.

We have expanded our logistics capabilities in recent years and now have a fleet of 20 delivery trucks, including refrigerated vehicles, that allow us to deliver more food, faster, to our clients, so that it remains fresh.

The Pennsylvania State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) through the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture "provides cash grants to counties for the purchase and distribution of food to low income individuals. It is intended to supplement the efforts of food pantries, soup kitchens, food banks, feeding programs, shelters for the homeless and similar organizations to reduce hunger" (source: www.agriculture.pa.gov). The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank is the SFPP lead vendor in three of our counties, and the preferred vendor in many others.

We also meet our goals through the generosity of our donors and volunteers. A donation of just $1 can help us provide six meals to the communities we serve and we rely on donors to help us in the fight against hunger. In fiscal year 2018, more than 3,000 volunteers provided more than 32,000 hours of service to the Food Bank, helping us pack boxes for our programs, sort produce and stock our shelves. We couldn't do what we do without their help.

Since the implementation of our Bold Goal, we have made significant progress in better access to better, more nutritious food throughout our 27 counties.

We have made excellent progress in improving the quality of food provided to these counties through our partnerships with MARC, PASS, SFPP, as well as our healthcare innovation strategies.

In 2017, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf launched his initiative "A Seat the Table, A Blueprint for a Hunger Free PA," which outlines his administration's strategies for solving hunger in the Commonwealth. Based on these recommendations, we chose to focus on one county with a large meal gap and partner with other local organizations to take a look at data and information on charitable assistance programs to begin implementing strategies outlined in the Blueprint. The results of this work will be transformational and bring us one step closer to ensuring everyone struggling with hunger has access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life. We expect the final report to be announced and strategies to be implemented later in 2019. Successes from this initiative will then be used in other counties where there a significant food insecurity rates (meaning individuals do not have access to 3 meals a day.)