Central PA Food Bank

As a result of the generous support provided by the Josiah W. and Bessie H. Kline Foundation, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s Project Advancing Hope, our major facilities expansion and network capacity building project completed in 2012, is now ensuring our mission capabilities for the next generation. We are seeing incredibly positive results related to our increased storage capacity: vastly increased receiving and distribution poundage; improved operational efficiencies; vibrant nutrition education activities in our new Nutrition Kitchen, and a newly designed volunteer workspace. These significant advances permit us to serve more than 54,000 individuals in need each week; providing food to over 75% more people than we did just four years ago. Food distribution in 2013 was over 30 million pounds, almost double our distribution in 2010, the year that our Project was conceived.  Equally significant, our fresh produce distribution now exceeds 5 million pounds annually, almost 5 times the amount we provided to hungry Central Pennsylvanians in 2010. This means that we now distribute more than 25 million nutritious meals per year, with fresh produce comprising over 20% of this food distribution. Also of great importance, we are also using our Nutrition Education to train our Member Agencies in healthy cooking and food selections, and many of our Members are working to spread this education to their clients to help them embark on a path of healthier living. We are able to accomplish all of this with the assistance of more than 3,200 volunteers who donate more than 32,000 hours of their time and energy. Thank you, Kline Foundation!