Allentown and Bethlehem school food pantries serve families

As the rate of food rises at the speediest charge in 40 yrs, and the cost of gas hits document highs, some people in the Lehigh Valley are battling to make ends meet up with.

That is why community colleges in Bethlehem and Allentown have stepped in to support family members and community customers struggling with foodstuff insecurity, which means they do not have steady accessibility to adequate meals for a healthier existence.

Fountain Hill Elementary School in Bethlehem Region Faculty District will split ground in July to develop a food items pantry based mostly in component on the district’s good results at Marvine Elementary Faculty, which has experienced a university-primarily based pantry open to the neighborhood for about three a long time. Meanwhile in Allentown, Hays Elementary Faculty opened the district’s third school-primarily based pantry in March.

“I imagine as a community school, you usually consider about wrapping your arms all around the local community, and this is just likely to be another level of how we’re capable to do that,” stated Courtney Wertman-Stambaugh, principal at Fountain Hill.

Neighborhood educational institutions present providers to meet up with the desires of their group customers outside the house the realm of teachers. This can include things like foodstuff pantries, as well as personal computer obtain, kid care and outfits distribution.

Jacquelin Antongiorgi, 31, of Bethlehem just lately attended a meals distribution working day at Fountain Hill Elementary, the place her daughter just finished faculty. She explained it can be really hard spending the bills as a single mom, and she thinks the new pantry will be practical for other solitary-father or mother homes in the neighborhood.

“It’s just getting to be so really hard for people,” she mentioned. “I truly feel like it would be very beneficial for food stuff pantries to assistance out with the local community.”

In the Lehigh Valley, 1 in 10 people and 1 in 6 young children working experience food items insecurity. Paige Hoffman, neighborhood college coordinator at Fountain Hill, claimed she has also seen foodstuff insecurity raise in the space encompassing the elementary college in the latest many years.

This is due to the hardships of the pandemic, she reported, but also due to the fact of the closure of close by grocery stores Ahart’s Market place and Base Dollar.

“We ended up actually fearful when that transpired about our families accessing foodstuff,” Hoffman explained. “Many of our families do not have transportation, or it’s not simple for them to get out, so we’re hopeful about possessing this pantry.”

Fountain Hill Elementary School has teamed up with Lehigh College and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity to sort the Fountain Hill Community Grocery Partnership, a nonprofit committed to fundraising for the long term pantry.

So significantly the nonprofit has lifted about 75% of its approximately $200,000 purpose to spend for the development of the pantry — a place extra to the college — as effectively as for a refrigerator, freezer and shelving for the house. The money will also go toward the charge of the pantry’s initial yr of operations. These intrigued in donating can deliver revenue on Venmo to @FeedingFountainHill.

Food items will be equipped by Next Harvest Food stuff Lender. The pantry will in the beginning be obtainable for Fountain Hill households to use when it opens in the tumble, but in long term decades, as the pantry grows, the space will be open up to any group associates who have to have food stuff.

The pantry will also finally go from organized baggage to a selection design, that means folks can choose merchandise like they would at a grocery keep. Hoffman claimed these goals ended up influenced by the success of Marvine Elementary.

Cesar Cordova, the community faculty coordinator at Marvine, claimed he has labored to build have confidence in with households, so they feel snug using what they need from the school’s pantry.

“When they come here, they say how pricey all the things is at the grocery retail store,” he explained. “We can help you to take some excess weight from every little thing you’re taking, so possibly you can use that income for a little something else.”

Marvine’s pantry serves about 130 households just about every week. And contrary to some faculty pantries, the food items is available for everyone who needs it. Guests do not have to have a baby at Marvine or are living nearby. The pantry serves about 50 senior citizens each individual thirty day period.

“Anybody can appear,” Cordova stated. “We’re hardly ever likely to say no to another person who’s hunting for meals.”

In Allentown, the new pantry at Hays Elementary is also open up to any person who demands assist, with a aim on Lehigh County inhabitants. Households and neighborhood customers can buy on the web and pick up their foodstuff the moment a thirty day period. The pantry has already served 500 family members because it opened in March, with the potential to serve up to 35 families per day.

Organizers reported the pantry was created in the Promise Foods & Wellness Center, which is hooked up to the elementary faculty, immediately after a neighborhood survey showed inhabitants essential support getting food stuff.

With industrial-sized freezers and fridges, the pantry can offer you contemporary deliver and meat, together with nonperishable things, like rice and beans.

Jeani Garcia, application supervisor for reentry and violence prevention at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, mentioned record significant costs have made it tough for family members to extend their dollars, even with government assistance via packages like the Supplemental Nutrition Support Plan.

According to the Purchaser Selling price Index, the value of meat and eggs has elevated 14.2% in the last 12 months, and fruits and veggies has improved by 8.2%.

“Food insecurity is surely expanding,” she stated. “The neighborhood is speaking about their SNAP added benefits … because of the food stuff [prices] growing, it is not having them by the month.”

Extra normally, citizens are obtaining on their own turning to the pantry at Hays or other food stuff banking companies, she mentioned.

Naaman Schlegel, principal of Hays, stated the pantry has previously served the school’s families and makes it possible for Hays to satisfy its position as a neighborhood school.

“If a boy or girl is coming to college hungry, they are not heading to be in a position to discover,” he mentioned. “The food pantry, in addition to our food items companies, functions really tough to make certain that we can provide food stuff to our family members to make guaranteed that the simple need of not going hungry is satisfied.”

Individuals seeking to place an buy at the Hays pantry can go to www.orderahead.org, and enter 18102 as the ZIP code. All those who do not have access to the online can use computer systems at the Promise Foods & Wellness Middle for their orders.

As for Fountain Hill, organizers are enthusiastic to replicate the work that Hays and Marvine are already carrying out once the pantry there opens in the drop.

“Everyone desires meals in buy to have electrical power and be the best variations of on their own every single working day,” Wertman-Stambaugh stated. “So [by] bridging that gap [for] households who may possibly not have ample foodstuff to be capable to do that, or college students who occur to school and are hungry, we’ll be capable to hopefully remove that barrier for them by offering this.”

Marvine Elementary Faculty: To study pantry summer season hours and timetable an appointment, simply call Cesar Cordova at 610-865-0012, ext. 16815

Broughal Middle School: For emergency foodstuff guidance, contact Alicia Creazzo at 610-866-5041, ext. 40808

Brigadier Typical Anna Mae Hays Elementary School: To plan a meals order, go to www.orderahead.org. Pantry hours are 4-7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 9 a.m. to midday the to start with and 3rd Saturday of just about every month.

Raub Middle Faculty: To routine an appointment, contact the key place of work at 484-765-5301. Pantry several hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The pantry is only open to school family members. A mobile pantry is also at Raub 4-6 p.m. the past Wednesday of each individual thirty day period.

Summer time Foods Software at St. Luke’s Healthcare facility-Sacred Coronary heart: Starting off June 20, little ones can occur midday to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday to the second ground cafeteria at 421 W. Chew St. for lunch. Each and every Thursday, generate will be readily available for households, and on Friday, households can acquire luggage of nonperishable things.