Summer brings cherished family vacations, colorful umbrellas planted in the sand, lively music festivals, and sizzling barbeques by the pool! Unfortunately, summer also means that children can no longer depend on receiving school meals. When schools close for summer, children don’t receive school breakfast and lunch, leaving countless children vulnerable to food insecurity. According to Feeding America, 1 in 6 children in our region are food insecure – which is a sharp 35% increase from last year.
For the 2nd year, we’re standing beside thousands of food-insecure Philadelphia-region families as we kick-off the Philabundance Summer Lunchbox program. This program features fresh, handmade Philabundance Community Kitchen (PCK) lunch meals and healthy, shelf-stable breakfast kits as well. Starting June 18th and running until August 24th, this program will provide nutritious, handmade lunch meals from our Philabundance Community Kitchen (PCK), alongside healthy, shelf-stable breakfast kits. Our dedicated PCK team will prepare up to 60,000 lunch meals crafted with fresh, wholesome ingredients, while volunteers will assemble 11,000 breakfast kits.
These meals will be available at any of our 25 strategically located youth-serving community partners throughout our nine-county service area. With inflation affecting the costs of food, people are struggling to put food on the table every day. Rising grocery prices have made it difficult for many families to afford necessities, forcing them to make tough choices between paying for food and other expenses like rent or utilities. We’re proud to stand beside the families we serve and provide nutritious breakfast and lunch meals throughout the summer.
This year, we’ve expanded our Lunchbox program with a 25% increase in our lunch meals and our meal production volunteer hours have increased from 48 hours to 525 hours. These meals will then be distributed through our 25 community partners including: Mighty Writers North, WD Kelley School, Small Things, Salvation Army Tabernacle, Puentes de Salud, Bebashi, Episcopal Community Services, Turning Points for Children Tilden Middle School, Beulah Baptist Church, PAL Wynnefield, PAL HQ, Mi Salud, Mighty Writers El Futuro, CityTeam Ministries, Buckner’s Giving Tree, ICNA Relief, Mattie Dixon Community Cupboard, PCRC, BCOC, Chester County Food Bank, Mighty Writers – Camden, Puerto Rican Unity for Progress, Sisterhood Inc, Mid-Atlantic States – Pantry, and Victory Assembly of God.
If you’d like to support this program, volunteer your voice and advocate for programs that help relieve child hunger, host a traditional or virtual food drive, or explore our volunteer opportunities and help prepare ready-to-eat meals. Together, we can make a meaningful difference in alleviating child hunger and supporting families in our community.
