The mission of the Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is to alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay. Our board of directors makes sure we stay true to our mission with all the programs we provide.

Since 2015, our community and others have noticed and appreciate what we do to help our Whitehall and Coplay low-income residents obtain food. Many hands work together to reach our goal. These hands include compassionate volunteers, wonderful faith-based partners, generous monetary funders and food drive organizers, WCSD students and local club organizations and our residents and local businesses who also provide monetary and food donations.

WCHI thanks and appreciates everyone!

All of our efforts are truly helping the food-insecure in our area. We have grown substantially since 2015. The two direct food programs we offer are our monthly food pantry distributions, which include senior boxes and our free community meals.

The following pantry statistics show the duplicated residents attending our food pantry for 2024. Guests sign a federal government yearly income limit form based on the family size.

These are the income statuses of our guests, based on the number of households and the total number of people we served on the given date range: 21 households with 77 people earn moderate income; 124 households with 444 people earn low income; and 297 households with 1,205 people earn extremely low income. We served 442 households and 1,726 people. These are unduplicated numbers.

In December 2024, the food pantry served 326 households, comprised of 428 children, 589 adults and 244 seniors for a total of 1,261 people served. WCHI had higher numbers of total people served in November at 1,340 and September at 1,306 people.

Some guests come every month, but not every registered guest comes monthly. Some don’t have transportation, some work during distribution times, some are called into work or are sick, some move out of the area, and some go to nursing homes or die.

For a pantry appointment, call Pat at 484-225-0358.

Senior boxes are provided to eligible seniors based on government income limits. These amounts are lower than the food pantry limits. Each eligible senior receives a 35-pound box of additional shelf-stable food when they pick up their pantry food.

WCHI has 56 active recipients and six guests on a waiting list. For more information, contact Gail at 610-351-6412.

Our free community meals are sponsored by our local faith-based community and others like Whitehall Active Community Center and Whitehall Wawa. They are offered twice a month, and the host site location changes for each meal.

The WCHI Facebook page posts the menu and more information for each specific site. In 2024, we served 1,616 meals to 1,165 guests. These numbers would have been higher, but both the January meals were canceled due to snow.

For more information, contact Karen at 610-730-3184.

WCHI appreciates all the compassion and support our community has provided to feed as many residents as we can. Many more volunteers are needed for all the programs we offer. For more information, contact Sylvia at volunteer.lee@gmail.com.

Thank you!