As part of the Communities That Care group trying to eradicate the "shocking" issue of hunger in Whitehall and Coplay, local businesses and community members are joining in to provide fresh foods and healthy eating expertise for the cause.

Shari Noctor, the woman in charge of the recently named Whitehall-Coplay Area CTC Hunger Initiative, said the CTC group is trying to educate local families about healthy eating and help people have access to fresh produce. As part of this, she welcomes businesses to donate money and volunteer time to the program.

"If we want things to come together, we need funding," Noctor said.

This article is part of a series following the efforts of the CTC food program to help local residents struggling to provide nutritious food for themselves and their families.

One of the ways the CTC group plans to provide needy people with healthy food is through a partnership with Lafarge North America, a Whitehall cement company that is starting a garden on company property. It will be run by employees that are paid for up to 16 hours of community service, said Plant Manager Lorraine Faccenda.

Faccenda said employees already bring in fresh vegetables to the company to be donated to the pantry and she has noticed interest among workers for helping with the garden program already, which will provide food items such as carrots, lettuce and spinach this fall.

"We're hoping in the fall, when we show success with this program, that we might be able to go to other businesses to see if it's something they can do, too, and inspire other businesses to do the same type of activities," Faccenda said.

Whitehall Township Mayor Edward D. Hozza Jr. said another community garden is planned to be at the Mickley-Prydun Homestead, which will be planned, cultivated, planted and maintained by volunteers. Other locations for gardens could be at Whitehall houses of worship, he said.

Federal laws protect people donating or distributing perishable food items "in good faith" from criminal or civil charges against them except in cases of "gross negligence," according to the 1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.

Hozza said Whitehall Township does not have any further local limitations on donating perishable food to pantries, adding that the food pantry in Whitehall relies on the direction of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Second Harvest Food Bank, which receives federal funding.

"The logistics of distribution will need to be ironed out, but we have plenty of successful models [in the Lehigh Valley] and the state to follow," Hozza said.

Noctor also said she hopes to implement a number of cooking instruction programs for residents and families in the area to learn how to eat healthier, including a federally funded program run by the Penn State Extension called Nutrition Links. The program involves a six-week round of free classes to show participants how to cook healthy meals.

"The public is given recipes and can taste the food prepared so they can experience what is the healthy way to eat," Noctor said. "Fresh vegetables are key today for a healthy lifestyle!"

Nutrition Links is taught by Nutrition Education Adviser Julie Davitt, who said she is trying to set up the program at the Whitehall Township Public Library this fall.

"We definitely try to promote healthier options at home on a budget," Davitt said.

The issue of food insecurity in the area came into light after the 2013 Pennsylvania Youth Survey showed 14.2 percent of students in selected grades in the Whitehall-Coplay School District did not know where their next meal was coming from. This prompted the CTC into action to work against the issue. The state rate of food insecurity was 9.5 percent.

As a result of the national economic issues hitting local areas, Hozza said he knows of many residents working two or three jobs, adding there is a "great deal" of affordable housing in Whitehall. He mentioned several ways the township is looking at improving the effects of the economic downturn.

"One train of thought is to raise the minimum wage so that those working at two or three jobs would not need federal assistance," Hozza said. "The other train of thought is to make those who do not work or attempt to seek employment complete mandatory service hours in return for benefits."

Denise Continenza, extension educator for family and consumer sciences for the Penn State Extension, said in an interview earlier this month she has seen an increase of the "working poor" in her community of Whitehall.

"It's real easy to say, 'We don't have any problems,'" Continenza said. "Yeah, we don't have big problems in Whitehall-Coplay. We want to catch things when they're small, before they begin."

Continenza added that it would be in the best interest of local businesses in the community to help with the Whitehall coalition against hunger.

"This is their future workforce," she said. "It's in their best interest to support it because these are the young people that could build their business, be their customers, be their employees."

In two weeks, the next article in the series will discuss the programs that the CTC food initiative will implement for students from low-income families in the Whitehall-Coplay School District.