Though the weather was hot Aug. 12, Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative had a great turnout of pantry guests and WCHI volunteers at both the morning and evening food distributions. We served 121 households - 95 Whitehall and 26 Coplay - comprising of 154 children, 179 adults and 78 seniors. We also registered 16 new households.

Thank you to all our dedicated volunteers who have completed our required clearances. Each person works hard with the many aspects of our distributions: picking up and unloading food, sorting and packing the bags, putting up the tables and pop-up tents, bringing the bags out to our many food stations and running and getting more inventory as the bags get depleted. Our guests consistently thank us for providing much-needed food and kindness. Some even cry.

We were hoping to be distributing food inside the pantry in September. However, we need to receive guidance from Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which oversees all the food in the state, and Second Harvest, which also gets guidance from Feeding America. We are currently still mandated to be outside due to COVID-19.

We will be resuming our free community meals as soon as we can. An opening date has not yet been set, as we are still working on the logistics. To work toward this goal, we are having another public meeting 11 a.m. Aug. 24 at our pantry at St. John the Baptist Church, 3024 S. Ruch St., Whitehall.

Before COVID-19, WCHI partnered with our faith-based and other organizations to provide meals 4-6 p.m. on the first Sunday and the third Tuesday of the month. Hot, sit-down meals were always guaranteed for the first 100 guests. All our guests are low-income residents of Whitehall and Coplay.

These Whitehall and Coplay organizations included Commitment to Family and Community, Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, First Presbyterian Church of Hokendauqua, Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Muslim Association of Lehigh Valley, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Church, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. John’s United Church of Christ, St. Peter Roman Catholic Church and Whitehall Bible Fellowship Church.

The Korean Church of the Lehigh Valley has done several food drives for WCHI, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided several volunteers. They help us weekly and sometimes twice a week. Thank you.

At our meeting last month, we had new parishes attending to obtain more information about possibly hosting a meal. If any local Whitehall and Coplay restaurant or business would like to provide a meal for 100 guests, call me so we can discuss the details.