Lehigh Valley Food Policy Council, of which I am a member, has said many times over the summer that food insecurity, which has been enhanced by COVID-19 job losses, will increase in the fall. This has now become a reality here at our community outreach program. Both the Coplay and Whitehall locations ran out of prebagged food for the first time since we started providing much-needed food in March.

Whitehall quickly prepared bags to distribute since the temporary pantry is housed at that location. For the Coplay residents who did not receive food at the last distribution, I delivered much-appreciated food to them the next morning.

Below is a list of numbers of recent distributions. Total people and households served increased 13 percent last week from Sept. 10.

AUG. 13

Children: 200

Adults: 245

Seniors: 68

Total people: 513

Households: 148

Aug. 27

Children: 205

Adults: 246

Seniors: 68

Total people: 519

Households: 147

Sept. 10

Children: 209

Adults: 232

Seniors: 65

Total people: 506

Households: 144

Sept. 24

Children: 238

Adults: 257

Seniors: 83

Total people: 578

Households: 165

The community outreach program will close after the Oct. 22 distribution for the safety of our guests and volunteers because of Daylight Saving Time and colder weather.

St. John’s Lutheran Church in Whitehall has been gracious to allow us to use its social hall since March. I have been looking for a new pantry site to move our operations to a permanent location. I am very excited to inform you that representatives from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 3024 Ruch St., Stiles, and I are in discussions for WCHI to open a Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Food Pantry to continue feeding Whitehall and Coplay residents. Though not finalized, we are moving toward a formal written agreement.

We are excited to be working with St. John the Baptist, but we need your help. This has just been announced to the WCHI board. All my Coplay volunteers want to open this food pantry and can’t wait to get their clearances. Whitehall’s volunteers and everyone on my email database have been contacted.

Whitehall Food Pantry, which feeds on average 15 to 18 households weekly, has decided to remain independent.

Many volunteers are still needed to unload our truck from Second Harvest Food Bank, unpack all the food donations, sort and repack the food in bags and boxes and distribute the food to the residents.

Catholic Diocese of Allentown requires, since we are on church property, all our volunteers to provide the following required child abuse clearances, workshops and reading: FBI fingerprinting with a prepaid code provided by the diocese, Pennsylvania State Police criminal record check (PATCH), child abuse history certification clearance with a prepaid code provided by the diocese, attend a Protecting God’s Children program with in-person or online workshops available, mandated reporter training in person or online, read the code of conduct on the Allentown Diocese website, read the sexual abuse policy on the Allentown Diocese website and read the child protective service law policy on the Allentown Diocese website. These are good for five years.

If you are interested in helping WCHI move closer to opening this pantry, contact me at 610-730-8067 or whitehallcoplayhunger@gmail.com with your name, address, phone number and email.