Emmaus Rotary leads the establishment of the East Penn Food Coalition along with other community service groups to meet hunger needs in the East Penn School District Community.

During 2019, representatives from Emmaus Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and Lioness met with management staff of the East Penn School District to assess children’s needs in the community. Surprising to many, the East Penn Community has a large number of food deprived families.

A joint summer lunch and reading program at Lincoln and Jefferson elementary schools was started in the summer of 2019. The goal was to assess the program and address the root causes of the community needs.

When COVID-19 hit, Emmaus Rotary went from supplying two elementary schools with 33 weekend meals each week to feeding over 200 students in the East Penn School District in less than two weeks.

As of mid-January, the club provided over 7,300 weekend meal bags of food to the community’s needy families.

In the summer of 2020, Emmaus Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions/Lioness, East Penn School District, Bethel Food Pantry, Angel Network, Faith Presbyterian Church, Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, YMCA and St. Ann Church combined to form The East Penn Food Coalition. If your group is interested in being part of this organization, contact the people below.

As a result of the increasing need and demand for help in the community, the inventory of food is decreasing.

The coalition is in need of assistance. They are seeking business, grants and individual donations to support over $20,000 in need.

You can provide help for our neighbors in need in the following ways: through the GoFundMe page at https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/east-penn-food-coalition, sending a donation to Emmaus Rotary Foundation, c/o 2225 Riverbend Road, Allentown, 18103 or contact Cindy Hornaman at hornamca@ptd.net or 610-360-4875 or Rick Zayaitz at richardzayaitz@gmail.com or 484-357 5780.

If you are interested in being part of this group, contact Emmaus Rotary. Thanks to all of those who have contributed thus far.

We can all work together to help the families in our own East Penn community.