Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is pleased to report it continues to help many Whitehall and Coplay residents.

These are the June statistics. WCHI served 274 households, consisting of 376 children, 481 adults and 199 seniors, for a total of 1,056 people. We also had 16 new households consisting of 54 people.

Our pantry attendance has been ranging between June’s low and April’s high of 316 households of 430 children, 547 adults and 242 seniors, for a total of 1,219 served guests.

Unfortunately, WCHI had 101 June scheduled guests who did not show up. We give our guests appointment cards monthly.

We normally have an average of 25 “no shows.” Many times, our guests forget their appointments, are called into work or do not have transportation on distribution days. WCHI is perplexed why so many people did not show since food and gas prices remain high.

Because WCHI has a Lehigh County food grant through the federal government, we need to keep demographics for each household that attends our pantry distribution. This government form is based on household size and income. The pantry guest fills it out and signs it.

The new year started for this data May 1 and is two months of nonrepeat households.

I wanted to share some of this grant demographic information with you. For the two-month period, WCHI served 17 moderate-income households with 63 people, 95 low-income households with 360 people and 224 extremely low-income households with 918 people. We had one “other” household with two people. All total, WCHI served 337 households for 1,343 people.

Race and ethnicity demographics include 196 white households with 646 people, 18 Black/African-American households with 94 people; 11 Asian households with 69 people; four American Indian/Alaska Native households with 26 people; two Asian and white households with 17 people; one Black/African-American and white household with five people; and 105 other multiracial households with 486 people.

This makes up the 337 households and 1,343 people in the previous paragraph. Also, in the race section, Hispanic and Latin ethnicity numbers are already included but separately are 152 households and 705 people. The government has this as a separate category on the form.

Also, of the 337 household and 1,343 people, other traits include 75 disabled households with 234 people; 101 elderly, ages 62 and older, households and 291 people; and 157 female heads of the household with 602 people.

We could not serve all our wonderful guests without Second Harvest Food Bank, the generous public who donate money for us to purchase food and all those who do food drives and donate food.

WCHI ordered 111,489 pounds of food, valued at $17,947, from Second Harvest from Jan. 1 to June 14. WCHI’s cost to Second Harvest was $764.23.

WCHI also started to weigh all the donated food we receive from food drives and the food donated to my office. From Jan. 1 to June 30, the donated food weighed 9,141.36 pounds. We also received many monetary donations.

Because of you, WCHI is feeding many Whitehall and Coplay residents. We really appreciate all you do for us and our guests.

Thank you all!