Meals and More Info Session

Posted by on January 13, 2014

PHENND and the Mayor’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO) welcome you to an information session about the Meals and More Initiative.

Wednesday, January 29
10-11:30 AM

at PHENND
3624 Market Street, Suite 5W

Meals and More is a project of the Philadelphia Food Access Collaborative.

Through the Meals and More initiative, the Collaborative seeks to address three key issues surrounding emergency meals: (1) the need for more meals available in the system; (2) creating stronger ties between meals service and access to other vital social services; and (3) providing healthy food options for guests of congregant meals. The anticipated outcome of volunteer recruitment, support, and targeted training for new and existing volunteers will enable meal providers to expand meal service by one meal each week.  This means an additional 500 meals will be served each week in Center City and West Philadelphia, addressing roughly 25% of the current gap in service between the need for meals and their availability.

Currently, many emergency meal providers do not have capacity to add more meals to their service, and volunteers are often unable to help individuals connect to critical services beyond food. Through your help with volunteer recruitment and targeted training for new and existing volunteers, we can address holistically the challenges of hunger and poverty in Philadelphia, and better connect guests to key services.

Nearly 1 in 3 Philadelphia residents are food insecure, and over 1 in 4 individuals are below the federal poverty line.  The Mayor’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO), as part of the work of the Philadelphia Food Access Collaborative, is focused on expanding emergency meals.  CEO will launch the Philadelphia Meals and More initiative, which will link volunteers with soup kitchens to expand the availability of meal services, and train volunteers in connecting meal guests to social and health services.  The goal of this effort is add 500 more meals each week, and connect more vulnerable individuals to life stabilizing supports.

Philadelphia Food Access Collaborative has worked diligently since its inception to foster an ongoing community conversation around the issue of food insecurity. Through these efforts, we know that there is a significant gap between the availability of meals and the needs of hungry individuals. Each week, hundreds of people travel to Center City in search of food, but sometimes leave empty handed. Approximately 2,000 additional meals are needed each week to meet demand.  We also know that this is a symptom of a broader problem. When people lack key supports, such as access to housing or food stamps, they often need to seek emergency meals.

For more information and to RSVP, contact Hillary Kane at hillarya@phennd.org.