Blog Category: Blog

Blog

Bucks County Housing Group

Thank you for your continued partnership and support! Miss Claire is a vibrant 69-year-old woman from Bucks County, PA who has been working hard her entire life, yet still faces the challenge of putting food on the table. After 15 years of suffering from food insecurity, she turned to the

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Blog

Changes to SNAP, what you need to know:

SNAP Emergency Allotments Ended Feb. 28, 2023 Please view our SNAP booklet here for detailed information.  Since the beginning of the COVID –19 pandemic, SNAP recipients have been temporarilyreceiving an “extra SNAP” payment each monthto help with the tremendous challenges brought on by the pandemic. Under this relief measure, SNAP recipients’ benefits were increased to the maximum amount for

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Blog

Food is the Fuel for the Future

March signifies National Nutrition Month and this month the theme is- Fuel for the future! Here at Philabundance, we focus on providing healthy and nutritious food for the people we serve while highlighting our mission of Ending Hunger for Good. This month we’re targeting eating with sustainability in mind, staying nourished,

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Blog

Huddle to End Hunger Totals

Thank you to everyone who donated to the Huddle to End Hunger Challenge! While the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t bring the Lombardi trophy home this go around during Super Bowl LVII, they’re still champions in our hearts! Thanks to the momentum of the Super Bowl hype and excitement for our Birds, Philabundance

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Haul Away Hunger - Over 350,000lbs of nutritious food were distributed
Blog

2023 Toyota Tundra Haul Away Hunger

On Friday, February 3rd, despite the frigid temperatures and whipping winds, more than 85 Toyota Tundras gathered at the Philabundance Berks location to haul more than 650,000 pounds of nutritious food to help feed our local communities facing food insecurity.     As the food pallet-packed vehicles rolled into Citizens Bank Park parking lot

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Blog

Huddle to End Hunger

Super Bowl Sunday is on February 12th, but the big game isn’t the only competition on the line.  Philabundance has launched Huddle to End Hunger, a friendly competition with our Feeding America counterpart in Kansas City to see who will emerge as the ultimate champs in the fight against hunger. Join us

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Blog

Food is Love at Philabundance

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”     This quote, coined by Hippocrates thousands of years ago, is still very relevant today, recognizing the importance of healthy eating and how nutritious foods are vital to our every day lives.     There’s something intrinsically special about gathering around

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Blog

The Distribution HUB

Thanks to all our volunteers, donors and community partners! Every Tuesday and Friday morning from 8:30 am-11:30 am cars line up on the side of our Galloway warehouse to pick up fresh produce at our “HUB” distribution. This food includes dairy items such as cheese and yogurt, fresh produce, and

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Blog

MLK Day of Service

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech – one of the greatest speeches in American history – on August 28th, 1963, calling for an end to racism.  Dr. King’s legacy extends far beyond that speech. Throughout his time as a civil rights pioneer, both

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Blog

Philabundance Retail Rescue

On a recent Tuesday morning, volunteers at the West Chester Food Cupboard loaded shopping carts with groceries for the line of cars that wound along the outside of the pantry’s warehouse.   “We give out the best foods,” Connie Gentile said proudly. Connie, a 22-year veteran volunteer, said the pantry

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Blog

Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation

Thank you for your continued partnership and support!   Philabundance is pleased to announce the generous donation of $250,000 from the Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation. The donation will help to provide fuel for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, allowing Philabundance to provide hundreds of thousands of meals to our communities in need.

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Blog

Join the Square Meal Society

Small Gifts. Big Impact.   Donations from individuals make up the majority of the support we receive at Philabundance. We know that without such incredible generosity from members of the community, we simply would not be able to do this important work.    Every day, donors join us in our

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Blog

Transforming Lives Through Food

This year marks the second anniversary for the Philabundance Community Kitchen (PCK) program operating from its dedicated, state-of-the-art facility. The 16-week culinary arts and life skills training program provides a path to stability and self-sufficiency by preparing students for work in the food service industry. Students get hands-on experience in a working kitchen

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Blog

Tis’ the Season to Say Thank You!

Thank you for an amazing year!   As 2022 comes to an end, we would like to say THANK YOU for a great year! With the unwavering support of our staff, donors, community partners, and volunteers, we’ve provided more than 52 million pounds of fresh healthy food and distributed 400,000 ready-to-eat meals to people in need throughout

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Photo of Loree Jones - CEO of Philabundance
Blog

From Loree’s Table – Winter 2022

Happy Holidays, Philabundance Family!   I truly believe this time of year creates something special. Maybe it’s the traditions, the holiday meals, the promise of a new year—or maybe it’s just the opportunity to spend more time with those we love.   Unfortunately, we know that for many people in

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Savory and delicious holiday recipes
Blog

PCK Holiday Recipes

This holiday season, enjoy two savory side recipes from our talented Philabundance Community Kitchen (PCK) chefs. These delicious recipes are sure to be a hit at the table. Bon Appétit!  ROASTED CAULIFLOWER AND SMOKED GOUDA MAC AND CHEESE Serves 8 CAULIFLOWER SAUCE 3 cups cauliflower florets, cut small 1 tsp salt 1

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News

Giving Tuesday 2022

This Giving Tuesday we once again joined 6ABC for the Annual Holiday Food Drive! The Holiday Food Drive raises funds to help Philabundance in our mission to relieve hunger today and end hunger for good.   From 4 pm-6:30 pm, 6ABC broadcasted a series of news segments while volunteers waited

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Blog

Together We Can Do More

As the holidays approach, many people are busy giving gifts, planning parties, and stocking up on groceries for holiday celebrations. Many of the individuals we serve, though, can’t afford to go shopping for gifts let alone nutritious food, so the need for donations this time of year becomes even greater. Together

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Blog

Philabundance This Thanksgiving

We are Thankful for YOU   Together, with your help, we were able to fill both plates AND hearts this Thanksgiving despite the increased costs of food. Through both physical and monetary donations, we’re ensuring our neighbors in need can celebrate and enjoy the bounty of the holiday with family

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Blog

The Pink Shirts

As the 25th Anniversary of the Preston and Steve Camp Out for Hunger takes place this week (11/07-11/11/22), we at Philabundance are taking a moment to look back at the history of this incredible event and some of the people who have helped support it, ensuring it comes together. One group that has

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Blog

This Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and there are spooky decorations everywhere we look. For many, it’s a time full of frightful fun with monsters and mummies, and ghosts and goblins galore. At the end of the evening on October 31st costumes get packed away and the decorations come down.  

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Strike Out Hunger - Philabundance vs Houston Food Bank fundraising competition
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Philabundance and the Houston Food Bank Strike Out Hunger

As the Philadelphia Phillies face off against the Houston Astros, Philabundance has challenged the Houston Food Bank to a friendly fundraising competition to see which city steps up to Strike Out Hunger. Coming off a win in our challenge against Feeding San Diego, Philabundance is so grateful to our incredible

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Featured

Home Town Hunger Relief Challenge

Philabundance and Feeding San Diego both had teams facing off on the baseball field for their division’s championship. In the spirit of friendly competition, Philabundance challenged Feeding San Diego to see who can raise more funding to feed the people we serve. With the cost of food rising, too many

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Blog

Community Voices Matter

Late this spring, the White House announced plans for a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The conference date has been announced! The Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health will be held on Wednesday, September 28th and will be live-streamed. The last conference of this kind was over 50 years

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Blog

2022 Hunger Action Month Virtual Food Drive*

Virtual food drives are a more economical and impactful way to give! If you’re unfamiliar with virtual food drives, they are a more economical and impactful way to give to communities facing hunger. Instead of driving to the store, purchasing food to donate, and then dropping those items off at

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Blog

Take Action This Hunger Action Month

September is Hunger Action Month — the Feeding America network’s annual nationwide campaign designed to inspire people to take action and raise awareness of hunger in the United States. This month-long campaign brings attention to the reality of food insecurity in the U.S. and promotes ways for individuals to get

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Blog

This Summer We Said ‘Let’s Eat’

As we reflect on our Philabundance Let’s Eat meal box program, which wrapped up earlier this month, we’re excited to share highlights from this summer initiative. Over the course of eight weeks, June 13th through August 6th, we distributed 16,000 nutritious meal kits to our 9-county community. That’s a total

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Blog

Top Guac 2022

The judges have chosen, and the 2022 Philabundance “Top Guac” Competition winner is Jessica deRivera, Development & Engagement Manager, Billy Penn at WHYY!  Philabundance, The GIANT Company, and Avocados from Peru teamed up for the 2nd annual Top Guac competition. The three guest contestants had 15 minutes to pit, mash,

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Blog

Food Insecurity Rates for Our Service Area 

Since 2011, Feeding America has conducted their annual Map the Meal Gap study to provide its member food banks with details about food insecurity on a local level.  Food insecurity is a measure of access to enough food for a healthy and active life. From the data now available, which

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Blog

Full Plate Society Spotlight: Hannah Kastenbaum

In her day job, Hannah Kastenbaum puts her passion to work each and every day: using her medical degree to help others. As an associate medical examiner for the City of Philadelphia’s Medical Examiner Office, Kastenbaum provides an important service to grieving families, public health, and the criminal justice process.

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Photo of Loree Jones - CEO of Philabundance
Blog

From Loree’s Table – Summer 2022

Dear Friends, I hope your summer, so far, has been a time for relaxing, reenergizing, and reconnecting with family, friends, and the community. While the adverse effects of COVID-19, inflation, and supply chain issues will be with us for a long time, I’m confident we are making strides. I find

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Philabundance Logo - Let's Eat Summer Program
Blog

Advocacy Beet: Kathy Fisher, Director, Government Affairs

As summer begins, we are entering a challenging new phase for school and summer meal providers – and for the children and families who rely on them. While Pennsylvania has provided some flexibility to nutrition programs to better function through several USDA waivers, two waivers will expire unless Congress acts.

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Blog

Hunger Doesn’t Take a Summer Vacation and Neither Does Philabundance!

Many children in our region rely on meals served at school to provide the nutrition they need to learn and grow. However, after school, on weekends, and especially during summer breaks, consistent access to fresh, healthy food may become unavailable. Like many organizations, Philabundance had to adjust distribution operations during

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Philabundance Logo - Let's Eat Summer Program
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Let’s Eat: Community Resources

In addition to Let’s Eat meal kits, we will highlight an educational or community resource each week. This page contains an archive of all of the Let’s Eat resources we’ve shared to date.   Week 1 To kick off the summer, we wanted to provide information that would complement the

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Philabundance Logo - Let's Eat Summer Program
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Let’s Eat by Philabundance

Approximately 400,000 children in the Philabundance service area, which covers nine counties in Southeastern PA and Southern NJ, rely on school-provided meals as a steady food source when school is in session. The loss of these meals during the summer forces too many families to face the additional challenge of

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Blog

Thank You to Our Volunteers

That’s a wrap! We are so thankful to everyone who spent time with us repacking food during Volunteer Appreciation Week. Our dedicated volunteers helped the Philabundance team sort and box more than 22,000 pounds of nutritious food.  We owe so much of our success to everyone helping us carry out

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Blog

One Million Meals: Pass the Love Campaign Reaches a Major Milestone

Partnership for Healthier America (PHA), along with PHA Honorary Chair Michelle Obama and Higher Ground Productions, recently announced that the ‘Pass the Love w/ Waffles + Mochi’ campaign has surpassed its goal of distributing one million healthy meals to families facing food insecurity around the country.   ‘Pass the Love’, which

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Blog

Philabundance Welcomes New Chief Development Officer

Philabundance is excited to announce our new Chief Development Officer, Chuck Wright. This seasoned professional will lead a dynamic development team and oversee all development and fundraising efforts at Philabundance, a hunger relief organization that directly serves more than 300 community focused organizations and provides additional food resources through lead

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Health and Hunger webinar - food insecurity in relation to health
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Food for Thought: Health and Hunger

Thank you to everyone who attended our Health and Hunger webinar, the first of our Food for Thought Virtual Conversation Series.   This webinar featured a panel of speakers with national, regional, and local perspectives on the issue of food insecurity in relation to health and well-being.   If you missed the

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Volunteering to help end hunger in the Philadelphia region
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The Value of Volunteerism

If anything can be said about the past two years, it’s that Philadelphians have come together to rise above the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the hard-fought, intense struggles we’ve faced, we’ve seen thousands upon thousands of selfless individuals put their own challenges aside to volunteer their time to help

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Peter DiBattiste helps fight hunger through legacy giving
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Planning with Passion: Spotlight on Peter DiBattiste

Education, health, and hunger — there’s no arguing the impact you can make on humankind in any one of these areas, according to Peter. As a career cardiologist and graduate of LaSalle University, DiBattiste has chosen to leave a legacy in all three of these areas with planned gifts to

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Virtual Food Drive staff from Aro BioTherapeutics
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Of the 170 Virtual Food Drives in 2021, Aro Tops the List

The pandemic has altered day-to-day life for most of us, and Philabundance is no exception. With many working remotely, practicing social distance and limiting the number of people gathering at any given time, the traditional food drive model, like so many other events, went virtual! While a Virtual Food Drive

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Photo of Loree Jones - CEO of Philabundance
Blog

From Loree’s Table – Spring 2022

Dear Friends, I hope you and your loved ones are safe, well, and looking forward to spring. For me, spring is the most inspiring of the seasons. It’s the season of hope. As you’ll read about in the latest print issue of The Feed, “It’s All Good” at Philabundance right

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Staff and volunteers working to drive hunger away during Ramadan
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Philabundance Will Drive Hunger Away During Ramadan

Ramadan is a sacred time of fasting, introspection, self-improvement, and heightened devotion to prayer. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, and those unable to fast are encouraged to help feed others in need. For the second year in a row, Philabundance will be working with State Senator Street’s office to

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Jamiliyah Foster - Director of Ending Hunger for Good Program
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Staff Spotlight – Meet Jamiliyah Foster

Meet Jamiliyah Foster: Director, Ending Hunger for Good Raised by a social worker mother, Jamiliyah Foster has always felt a strong commitment to service. “My mother always reminded my brother and me that we have many blessings to count,” remembers Jamiliyah. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Jamiliyah Foster graduated from

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Good Food Policy graphic
Blog

A Commitment to Good Food

Philabundance was founded on the belief that no food should go to waste while people struggle to put food on their table. We started this project over 35 years ago and have continued to grow and evolve as we learn more about hunger in our area. Our growth has included

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Celebrate National School Breakfast Week
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National School Breakfast Week

You’ve likely heard the old adage, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” It turns out, there’s a lot of truth to that, especially when it comes to students. Extensive studies show that children who eat a healthy breakfast are more likely to: Have better concentration and memory.

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Good food in the fight against hunger.
Blog

Good Things are coming to Philabundance

Have you heard? Good things are coming to Philabundance, and we can’t wait to share the news! Here at Philabundance, we rely on our partners to help us identify innovative ways to drive hunger from our communities today and End Hunger for Good. And this year, we’ve got an exciting

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Philabundance volunteer working in a food distribution center
Blog

At Philabundance, Food is Love

We all know the power of a delicious meal—one that comforts us, nourishes us and connects us with the people we love. Food is a fundamental part of our experience as humans. Sharing food binds us together, strengthens our communities, and reinforces our connections with each other. When it comes down

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