Second Harvest Food Bank selected Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative to be part of the Pennsylvania Healthy Pantry Initiative in February 2022.

Out of the 37 food pantries located in Lehigh County, WCHI is one of four designated as a healthy pantry. The other three pantries are Allentown Area Ecumenical, Promise Food and Wellness in Allentown and Northern Lehigh in Slatington.

“Historically the charitable food system was thought to provide temporary assistance, but today it actually plays a role in supporting the ongoing needs of chronically food insecure households. Also, historically the foods available at food pantries are shelf stable and highly processed foods,” according to Feeding America.

“In 2014, the study, ‘Hunger in America,’ showed that individuals facing food insecurity more commonly have diet-related diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes. When highly processed foods are provided to these individuals from food pantries, this further contributes to chronic disease, results in increased health care expenditures and leads to spending trade-offs,” Feeding America reported. “Ultimately, it contributes to the cycle of chronic disease and food insecurity.”

I did not see an updated study since 2014.

The Healthy Pantry Initiative in Pennsylvania is a project in Feeding PA in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

“The goal of PA HPI is to increase access to healthy foods and beverages and chronic disease information to food pantry clients,” Feeding America reported. “The initiative also aims to support pantry clients in increasing their consumption of healthy foods by highlighting the healthy choices within the food pantries.

“In order to accomplish the PA HPI goals, nutrition educators work with food pantries to increase availability of healthy food items; train pantry staff on nutrition information and the Healthy Pantry Initiative; provide display and storage equipment to nudge clients to healthier options; provide shelf talkers, signage, produce information and/or recipe cards; hold food demonstrations, tastings and/or nutrition classes.”

These goals and interventions support breaking the cycle of food insecurity and chronic disease. The long-term goal is to reduce the burden of disease and increase the quality of life for Pennsylvanians who use food support systems. This comes from our PA HPI Partner Toolkit.

WCHI’s HPI chair is Jenn Dietz. Our Second Harvest PA HPI coordinator is Kim Slack, who is a registered dietitian. She has worked with Jenn and WCHI on all the items listed above.

In April, Kim provided a food tasting of hot vegetable chili, made with items available in our pantry. She also provided a recipe card for our guests to take home. Our guests really enjoyed this!

Kim will be back for both morning food distributions 9:30 a.m. June 8 and 15 and will be providing samples of apple cinnamon bread that has applesauce, walnuts and eggs.

We usually have these items available for our guests to select while pantry shopping with our volunteers. WCHI cannot guarantee they will be available in June from Second Harvest’s inventory, which changes daily. Kim also will be providing the recipe in both English and Spanish.

Again, WCHI’s mission is to alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. Food insecurity is very silent. People do not want others to know they need food.

You see the Feeding America billboards.

Reach out to your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. No one should be hungry, especially when we have food readily available.

Call 484-225-0358 to schedule a pantry appointment or for more information on how you can help WCHI.

Thank you, and have a great week!