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Food bank: Need for food is not slowing

Between March and June of this year, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank distributed an extra 6.5 million pounds of food which equates to a nearly 50 percent increase from the same time last year, Joe Arthur, executive director of the food bank reported at a virtual town hall held this week.

“And that pace continued into September,” Arthur continued in his report. “The need is not waning.”

He noted that the Food Bank and its partner agencies are serving 200,000 people per month, which is up from about 135,000 per month, served in the months prior to the crisis.

“The response to the COVID-19 pandemic put a tremendous strain on our mission. We did not expect that in order to stay safe and keep up with demand that we would have to move our packing operation to a larger facility or to add a third shift or to have to purchase some of the food supplies we needed when donations were interrupted because of panic buying at grocery retailers,” he said.

Arthur shared that one in 20 Central Pennsylvania residents are new to food insecurity and that about a third of that total number are children. Food insecurity refers to the lack of reliable access to nutritious, affordable food.

One of the challenges to both food banks and farmers during the pandemic has been the disruption in the food supply chain. He cited several federal and state programs that have helped in the process of distributing the food to the families and school children where it is needed.

“On top of the pandemic, news coverage of protests and demands for justice have renewed our strong commitment to work for equality, for diversity and for inclusion. And against inequities that sustain hunger,” Arthur said.

Arthur was joined at the town hall by representatives of partners of the food bank that directly serve communities in the region.

Danielle Ruhf, executive director of Child Hunger Outreach Partners, Towanda, admitted that “no one would have expected this level of need,” referring to issues caused by the pandemic.

“We thought we were buttoning things up pretty well here in the northern tier and the pandemic hit,” she said.

“We just want to continue to have the internal policy to always say yes to however we can get the food out there. But, the biggest thing we’re going to face is uncertainty from one day to the next in how we can meet the needs of all the people and do it safely,” she added.

Ann Guenin, executive director of Downtown Daily Bread, a soup kitchen located in Harrisburg, serves a more transient population. She said that the biggest challenge her organization faces is “how are we going to continue feeding people as the weather turns cold.”

“We’re a place where people have to come to us and they either come from the surrounding areas where they live, or many come from the encampments that have arisen in the city,” Guenin said.

When the pandemic hit, Downtown Daily Bread started serving take out meals at their front door. Guenin expressed concern that as the weather changes, this may not be a viable option.

“How do we continue to serve a hearty meal, and enough of a meal, because for many folks this is their only meal of the day,” she shared. “How do we get the food in the hands of those who need it most in the city?”

Others participating in the discussion were Jennifer Brillhart, of the York County Food Bank and Jane Clements- Smith, executive director of Feeding Pennsylvania.

All of the participants noted that volunteers are needed to help carry out their mission. The pandemic has not only increased the volume of their work, but it has also decreased the number of people volunteering.

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