Program areas at Philabundance
To fulfill its mission to relieve hunger now, phlb distributes food to more than 350 hunger relief agencies throughout a 9-county service area covering southeastern Pennsylvania and southern new jersey. Through collaboration with manufacturers, grocers, and local agencies, phlb is able to purchase, collect and deliver upwards of 50,000,000 pounds of food annually to shelters for unhoused people, soup kitchens, food cupboards, and after-school programs, providing nutritious options to more than 90,000 people per week, including the region's most vulnerable groups including seniors and children. Due to the impact of covid-19, the volume of food delivered increased by about 67% compared to the prior year.
In march 2019, phlb took the bold move to form our end hunger for good (ehfg) after-school programs, providing nutritious options to more than 75,000 people per week, including the region's most vulnerable groupsincluding seniors and children. (ehfg) departments, which focuses on collaboratively pairing healthy food and other critical services to work toward long-term solutions to food insecurity. To end hunger for good and to ensure that all people in the Delaware valley become food secure, phlb will disrupt the cycle of spending tradeoffs between food and other necessities that perpetuate instability. We will increase access to nutritious food and provide food as the gateway to other services through cross-sector partnerships. (continued on schedule o. )this will serve to decrease the gap in food need and increase outcomes for better health, income/employment, housing stability and financial literacy. As part of our ehfg program, we have been providing a 16-week culinary vocational training program which has been transforming the lives of women and men with low-to-no income since 2000. Part of that training consists of preparing meals for our catering business. People/organizations purchasing the catering are aware it is to support our mission. The average employment rate for the last ten classes is 80%.