By Shelby Joy Adams | Director of Development & Communications
This year, as the world searches for new norms amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity remains prevalent in our Philadelphia region and logistics for programs to access food are in flux.
On the governmental side, the Pennsylvania summer P-EBT (Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer) program was only just approved this month, September of 2022. This means that families eligible for food assistance endured the summer and this year's drastic inflation without additional support to make up for the cost of school meals that their eligible children missed out on during the summer months. Those eligible families will now receive funds retroactively to help make up for food costs over the summer.
Other local organizations like food pantries are experiencing increased demand through their programs as food and gas prices remain high. Even while working to meet this augmented need, some pantries have begun a slow return to being "choice" pantries. This means that instead of having only pre-packaged food boxes available for participants to pick up or to be delivered (a COVID-19 safety precaution), some pantries are able to welcome people into their facilities to decide what food best fits the needs of their families.
OUR SUMMER AT THE COALITION AGAINST HUNGER
As in previous years, we maintained and promoted a webpage and hotline that shared location and access information about local Summer Meals sites. The Summer Meals program provides meals and snacks to kids up to age 18 at no cost and helps supplement food needs for families whose children get meals at school while it is in session.
One big advancement in the Coalition Against Hunger's Summer Meals offerings is that this year, for the first time, we had a live hotline available to those seeking information about the opening hours, offerings, and locations of local Summer Meals sites. This summer we referred hotline callers to 66 Summer Meals sites and our webpage was accessed 5,121 times - that's a 274% increase in webpage visits from last year.
This summer we also had the pleasure of hosting three Fox Fellows from the University of Pennsylvania. One project that they helped to complete was a survey of our VIP (Victory in Partnership) pantry network, which allowed us to gather vital information about how our local pantries are serving their communities and about their needs.We've compiled this information and began sharing it with our larger community via our email newsletter to prompt support for these pantries.
CAREFUL RETURN TO SOME IN-PERSON ACTIVITIES
Following CDC guidelines, we have been able to ease into some in-person activities here at the Coalition Against Hunger! Our team enjoyed an outdoor Wellness Picnic in June, we've attended and offered information at several outdoor community events this summer, and we are even on a staggered schedule for team members to be in the office each for one day per week.
We are also very excited to host our first public in-person event since the outbreak of COVID-19. The Night to Fight Hunger is back and will take place on October 20th at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. The event is outdoors and will feature musical guest SNACKTIME, dinner by Di Bruno Bros, fun lawn games, and more!
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