We are looking forward to another busy week, feeding more than 600 food-insecure Whitehall and Coplay residents Oct. 8 at our two community outreach program distribution sites.

Our last distribution will be Oct. 22, due to darker nights and colder weather.

Thank you all for your generous product and monetary donations. We could not have provided this much-needed program without you. Stop by to help and to see how appreciative our guests are. They cannot wait for us to open our new food pantry.

This week’s food needs include individual macaroni and cheese, canned pasta, such as SpaghettiOs and Chef Boyardee, individual fruit snacks, individual cereal, large cereal boxes and toilet paper. We are winding down on the needed items until we can open our new pantry.

We are excited to report we already have 35 residents who volunteered to complete the child abuse clearances to work in our new food pantry. Many hands will make the work go much faster. We expect to feed many more than the 600 people we are feeding now once we are in our new, permanent location.

The clearances are free, take a little bit of time and are good for five years. If you would like to be a volunteer in our new pantry, sign up on our website, whitehallcoplayhungerinitiative.org/volunteer.html. We need you.

I even have community outreach program recipients who want to give back and have signed up. That is so wonderful. Thank you, everyone.

If you are planning on buying anything at the Whitehall Boscov’s, wait until Oct. 14 and 15. Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is a recipient of the Friends Helping Friends program.

For any purchases you make 9 a.m.-9 p.m. those two days, tell the cashier for the Friends program you want the Whitehall–Coplay Hunger Initiative to receive the 5-percent donation.

Boscov’s will mail us a check the following week. Please tell your family and friends about this, too.

Also, if you can donate blood, I am having a Miller-Keystone Blood Center bloodmobile drive 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 27 at my office, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall. Register at tinyurl.com/yy6gagbc. All blood types are in very short supply. Please help if you can.

Thank you, all. Have a super-fantastic week!