September is Hunger Action Month. It was established by Feeding America in 2008 when they decided it was time for a nationwide push to get involved with the hunger crisis across the country. During September, people everywhere help to feed the needy in their neighborhoods and country, working to ensure that the 48 million people who live with hunger every day can get some relief.
Going hungry is a problem for more than just adults. Children all over the country go to school without a proper breakfast, leading to difficulty focusing on their education, alertness, and generally performing well.
Hunger affects all sorts of people. Many people across the country are just one job loss or medical emergency short of not being able to put food on the table.
In Pennsylvania, one in eight adults, and one in six children struggle with hunger. That’s almost 1.7 million people, almost 500,000 of which, are kids.
Kids who go hungry are at more risk of repeating grades in school, experiencing developmental impairments in areas like language and motor skills and more likely to have behavioral and social problems.
Children struggling with hunger come from families who are struggling, too. Children facing hunger often grow up in a family where a parent or parents also face hunger. A family of four facing hunger may be in need of 34 additional meals a month simply because they don’t have money to buy enough food.
Children and adults aren’t alone in the hunger struggle. Our senior citizens are also working to balance bills and medical care with food. According to Feeding America, 64 percent of seniors they serve are choosing between food and medical care. Feeding America also notes that “The rate of hunger among seniors aged 60 and older has increased by 68% since 2001, a lingering effect of the 2008-09 recession. In fact, the number of seniors struggling with hunger is projected to increase by another 50% when the youngest of the baby-boom generation reaches 60 in 2025. And hunger pains can be increasingly painful as we age.”
Did you know that Lycoming County is one of the highest food insecure counties in Pennsylvania?
So what can we do to help?
The first answer is the most obvious. Donate. Be it to an organization like Feeding America or staying local by donating to the Central PA Food Bank, or the Salvation Army’s Food Pantry.
To help hungry families, Firetree Place partners with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank to host Fresh Express. Fresh Express is a program which provides fresh food to local sites who then distribute it free to the public.
Fresh Express occurs three Fridays each month from 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. at 600 Campbell Street.
According to firetreeplace.org, currently, between 200-300 individuals are being served with this vital program!
If you have any questions about the Fresh Express program or are interested in becoming a volunteer during the program, please feel free to contact their Food Programs Director at (570) 666-1579 or by email at tfalls@firetreeplace.org. You can also inquire directly through their website.
Since COVID, several local school districts are also able to provide free breakfast and lunch to students to help ease the worry of going hungry.
All of these organizations are working in the fight against hunger locally and can always use both food and financial donations. If you can’t donate that way, consider donating your time. Fifty-one percent of food programs rely on volunteers.
You can contact the Central PA Food Bank at http://www.centralpafoodbank.org or by calling (570) 321-8023. and you can reach the Salvation Army at 570-326-9187.
We live in the highest food producing country in the world. No one should be going hungry, so let’s all do what we can to help.
