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Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania

Operating with a staff of 13 and many volunteers, Second Harvest Food Bank distributes about a half million pounds of food and other grocery products each month. Nearly 200 member agencies rely on the food bank to help them meet their participants' needs.

The Food Bank is supported by generous manufacturers, distributors, grocers, growers and individuals within the area we serve, who donate about half of the product that is distributed.

The other half of the food that is available to our members is taxpayer-funded, through the Pennsylvania State Food Purchase Program, or federal commodity programs like The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) or the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).

Continued Hunger in a Valley of Plenty

As a follow up to studies conducted in 1989, 1995, and 2002; this report evaluates the diverse situations faced by people accessing the emergency food assistance network in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania, a program of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, conducted interviews with participants at Lehigh Valley food pantries and soup kitchens. The purpose of the survey was to determine and better understand participants’ need for emergency food assistance.

To get a copy of this report, please read our Adoby Acrobat® file of the Continued Hunger in a Valley of Plenty.

Food Frugality Challenge

For one week in Spring 2005, 21 men, women, and children in the Lehigh Valley participated in the Food Frugality Challenge. For this experiment, participants purchased all food eaten using the average food stamp allocation of 89 cents per meal. The purpose of the Food Frugality Challenge was to allow people who have never personally experienced poverty and the difficulties of food insecurity and hunger to have that opportunity. To learn more about this, please read our Adobe Acrobat® file of the Food Frugality Challenge Summary Report.

View our 2009-2010 Annual Work Plan in Adobe PDF format.