I am taking this opportunity to thank all our selfless volunteers who helped Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative with our June 8 and 15 food distributions. WCHI is feeding close to 1,000 people a month. We did not have enough manpower to help on these two dates, so I extended an invitation for help.

WCHI can always use more volunteers who can help. We can also use help at our WCHI garden. State-mandated clearances are required for volunteers 18 years old and older. If you are a Catholic parishioner, additional read and sign forms are required. Children and youth 12-17 can volunteer with parent acknowledgment with a read and sign form.

Go to tinyurl.com/WCHIforms to review the necessary forms, requirements and clearances. They are valid for five years once obtained.

WCHI is 100% volunteer and has a 501(c)3 public charity status with the IRS.

There are a lot of behind-the-scenes activities that occur throughout the month, such as ordering and picking up food from Second Harvest Food Bank, purchasing food and toiletries, loading our vehicles and bringing them back to the pantry. These items get carried into the pantry and sent to their dedicated areas in the pantry before being loaded onto skids or rolling racks. The inventory is stocked on appropriate racks for our pantry guests to choose from.

On distribution days, our volunteers welcome guests as they arrive; register guests; help shop; provide produce boxes; and unload the bagged or boxed items into our guests’ cars.

WCHI’s pantry choice racks include canned fruit; canned vegetables; protein like canned salmon, tuna and chicken; canned beans; peanut butter; rice and pasta; cereal; grains like oatmeal and macaroni and cheese; ready-to-eat foods; canned/jar sauces; bagged chili; soups; snacks; condiments; baby food and diapers; coffee; adult diapers; feminine products; toiletries such as toilet paper, tissues and toothpaste, when available; frozen food and refrigerated food like milk, cheese and eggs, when available; produce boxes and bagged fruit; and dog or cat food, when available.

WCHI orders, receives and distributes 14,000-18,000 pounds of food a month from Second Harvest. We also get 2,700 pounds a month of fresh produce boxes and additional other fresh produce, when available.

With the current economy, the available items have decreased from 250 a year ago to about 105 today. In May, Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley hosted a food donation event. We received 2,000 pounds of food that day. Taylor Villas, a 55-and-older housing subdivision in Whitehall, also hosts several food drives for us, as does Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Egypt. All this donated food has been distributed. WCHI also received approximately 2,000 pounds of assorted canned beans from Catasauqua Area School District.

We currently need canned fruit (not cups); small and large cans of tuna; cereal; macaroni and cheese; and any kind of pasta.

Monetary donations are also appreciated. Make your check payable to WCHI and write “food” in the memo section. Food and monetary donations can be dropped off, mailed or shipped to WCHI-Shari Noctor at my RE/Max Unlimited office, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall, 18052. The office is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.

WCHI is part of Plant a Row Lehigh Valley. If you have additional vegetables or would like to donate a plant or two, these can be put on the table in my foyer. We will give these vegetables to our guests at our pantry distributions and at our two monthly free community meals.

If the vegetables are donated at other times, Gwen Herzog, our garden chair and Plant a Row representative, will add them to our garden and will make sure the fresh vegetables are given to low-income people who will use them.