Right now, the safety net is breaking.
- Helping Harvest lost $3M in federal funding—15% of their capacity
- Pennsylvania’s budget impasse has frozen critical state funding.
- Most alarmingly, SNAP benefits are not being distributed in November, while utility assistance programs have also disappeared.
- Berks County just recorded its highest homeless count ever.
Daily, we receive notices of another support service gone. Families who were managing are now in crisis.
We are already experiencing the surge. In FY24, your support helped us serve 76,200 lunches to 63,643 people. This year, we have served 97,126 lunches to 80,413 people—a 27.5% increase in meals and a 26.3% increase in people served—and the full SNAP disruption hasn’t hit yet. That’s 20,926 additional meals for neighbors who have nowhere else to turn. Our client choice pantry serves 125 families/week, and we are currently having difficulty keeping the shelves stocked.
If you’d like to join the effort to ensure children and families are fed, we will gratefully accept donations of the following:
- Rice (long grain white rice, 2-4 pound bags)
- Cereal of all kinds
- Shelf stable milk
- Oatmeal
- Peanut butter and jelly
- Pasts and pasta sauce
- Black beans
- Red Beans
- Canned mixed vegetables, corn, peas, string beans
- Chunky Soups (not condensed)
- For Thanksgiving :
- Canned sweet potatoes
- Cooking Oil
Donations can be dropped of at 138 South 6th Street daily between 9:00-10:30 or Saturdays between 9:30-12.
You can also donate online to help fill the SNAP Gap
With gratitude – The New Journey Staff