I would like to thank our many selfless volunteers who work on a myriad of programs and tasks for Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative.

Without their tireless support, we would not be able to serve our food-insecure children, adults and seniors living in Whitehall and Coplay. WCHI is 100-percent volunteer run. As with all nonprofits, we can always use more volunteers.

We started our new children’s summer feeding program June 16, bringing food into six different drop-and-go locations, with the goal of feeding a minimum of 500 food-insecure children, baby through age 18. There is one Coplay location and five in Whitehall.

Many children rely on the school’s free and reduced-rate breakfast and lunch during the school year. Our volunteers, who have the required clearances, unboxed several thousand pounds of food, sorted and packed bags for 600 children for Wednesday’s distribution. There will be 100 bags of food for each location.

The program runs 10-11 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays through Aug. 25.

Call or text my cell at 610-730-8067 if you can help load bags in vehicles 8:45-9:30 a.m. on those days and/or unload any unused bags 11:15-11:45 a.m. at our pantry, 3024 S. Ruch St.

You are welcome to load and unload on any Monday and/or Wednesday throughout the summer for the program. Clearances are not needed to load and unload our cars.

Additionally, our volunteers unbox and sort 3,000-5,000 pounds of food weekly from Second Harvest Food Bank and public food donations for our pantry distributions. They then pack more than 1,200 bags of food and some toiletries.

WCHI provides bags of shelf-stable food like tuna fish, soup, canned beans and vegetables, cereal, pancake mix and syrup, shelf-stable milk, rice, pasta, spaghetti sauce and macaroni and cheese; refrigerated food including cheese and butter; frozen food including chicken, hamburger and fish; baby food; coffee; toiletries; and dog and cat food.

Thank you to Second Harvest, all the many public monetary and food product donors and Frank Hutch at The Center for Animal Health & Welfare in Easton, who provides 99 percent of our dog and cat food.

Our pantry served 115 households at the last distribution, June 10, including 41 Coplay and 74 Whitehall households. There were 156 adults, 96 children and 81 seniors for a total of 333 people. We also had 10 new households register.

In May, I reported incorrect numbers since I accidentally did not include our 22 new May registered households. May’s correct numbers are as follows: 118 households with 36 in Coplay and 82 in Whitehall; 194 adults; 126 children; and 69 seniors. Our Coplay households and seniors increased this month.

Many households are using the funds recently deposited in their P-EBT/access cards, and many have returned to work. Although many people have additional funding on their P-EBT/access cards, they should still come to our pantry and have their children attend our summer feeding program. Our food will help you stretch your food dollars.

This week’s food item requests include fruit and cream oatmeal packets, four-packs of fruit cups, Knorr Packets (rice or noodles) and Famous Amos cookies.

These items can be shipped to or dropped off at my RE/MAX Unlimited office, 1080 Schadt Ave., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays.

Thank you, and have a great week!