Mark your calendars for Feb, 24, 2015.

On that date, Communities That Care will host a meeting to address the problem of hunger in the Whitehall-Coplay School District.

"The Whitehall-Coplay School District exceeded the state average for the number of youth who indicated food insecurities in the home on the Pennsylvania Youth Survey 2013," says a flyer for the meeting, prepared by CTC member Shari Noctor.

The survey was administered to students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 in order to give CTC organizers some data on which to build their "operating system" that aims to reduce problem adolescent behaviors.

Fifteen percent of students said they either skipped meals for financial reasons or that they worried about running out of food, said CTC Coordinator Denise Continenza.

"People put their heads in the sand and think this is an Allentown problem, this is a third world problem," said Noctor, addressing those gathered for the CTC's annual meeting on Dec 4.

Noctor described it as "astounding" to learn that 48 percent – or 2,060 out of the district's 4,260 students – are getting free or reduced lunches.

In Catasauqua the number is 50.5 percent or 759 out of 1,503 students.

In Northampton, it's 28 percent, or 1,540 out of 5,500 students.

"This is not limited to people on welfare," she said. "A lot of these people are working families who have to decide do I pay the electric bill or do I skip a meal?"

Noctor said the Whitehall food bank at St. Stephens Episcopal Church serves 137 families. The Coplay Food Bank serves another 75 families.

"Both have seen an increase in need since the 2008 economic crash and a big decrease in food supplies," she said.

For example, last spring the U.S. Postal Service food drive yielded 9,000 pounds of food in Whitehall, compared to 19,000 pounds the year before. Making matters more difficult is the fact that they had to throw out 3,000 pounds of donations from this year's drive because the food was outdated or the packages were opened.

The February meeting will attempt to find the root cause of the problem, Noctor said. Do people need help with budgeting their money? Do they know how to make healthy meals? Do they know how to stretch their money? How many people are in need but under the radar because they don't meet the income guidelines to qualify for the lunch program or food bank participation.

"It's not just let's give everybody a bag of food," said Continenza. "Let's find out what's causing this."

The meeting will take place at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3355 MacArthur Road, Whitehall. Times are 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. and there is a snow date of Feb. 26.