Farm to fork, from county to county, in Pennsylvania

Central Pennsylvania Food Bank fills the fridges and tummies of ‘neighbors in need’

One in nine central Pennsylvanians face hunger every day.

“We are at very high levels of need for food assistance, and there are a lot of factors weighing on families right now,” says Joe Arthur, executive director at Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.

The Food Bank works to provide healthy food through an extensive network of partners across 27 counties and enlists the help of more than 16,000 volunteers to serve more than 150,000 people each month who might otherwise go hungry.

“We don’t just provide the typical dry goods that you’d expect in a pantry, but also fresh and frozen foods, as well as produce and dairy,” says Arthur.

The Food Bank and its partners have established a sophisticated operation. After collecting food donations from farms, orchards and even grocery store suppliers, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank sorts and packages food at its two Healthy Food Hub locations in Williamsport, PA and Harrisburg, PA. The packages are distributed to more than 1,200 partner agencies who ultimately get them into the hands of those in-need.

In the past 10 years, effectively since Arthur assumed his role as executive director, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank has grown to distribute approximately five times the amount of food to communities and neighbors in need.

“We saw an extraordinary increase in demand in about 2009 following the Great Recession, so we really needed to expand,” says Arthur. “We turned our attention to growing our operations and focusing on healthy eating by building our fresh produce and dairy product operations.”

He adds: “The last decade has been really transformational for the Food Bank and the people and families we serve.”