Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2021! A brand-new exciting year is ahead of all of us.

We are thrilled to finally announce the opening of the new Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Food Pantry.

We are opening our new WCHI Food Pantry to Whitehall and Coplay food-insecure residents 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 5:30-7 p.m. Jan. 14. The parking lot is well lit for anyone concerned. The snow date for the opening is Jan. 21. Our new location is at St. John the Baptist’s former Christ the King School, 3008 S. Ruch St., Stiles.

A postcard will be printed and mailed to our 225 households that regularly received food from us.

Our community outreach program started in March 2020 due to COVID-19 and closed Oct. 22, 2020, for the safety of our guests and volunteers due to the darkness caused by daylight saving time.

Because WCHI was feeding so many residents, we knew we needed a permanent pantry and the search started in August 2020. Monsignor Gobitas and Barbara Sukanick from St. John the Baptist Church in the Stiles section of Whitehall answered our prayers. We started with an empty cafeteria room.

The operation of the pantry will be drive-thru style. There will be two parallel distribution lines for pickup. Expect long lines the first day.

Identification is required, and maximum income limits apply.

Pickup will be outside through March 31 at least, per Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture food pantry mandates.

Tell your Whitehall and Coplay family members, neighbors and friends who need food about our new pantry.

To get to the new pantry, go north on MacArthur Road past the township building. At the next light, make a right on Center Street. Follow it to the end and make a left on Ruch Street. Go straight until you see the church on the left. Turn left on Park Street and follow to the driveway behind the church.

From Coplay, make a left from Chestnut Street onto Ruch Street, then turn right on Park Street.

I wanted to thank a few people whom I omitted in my last update. I want to let you know we cannot do our work without our Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Board of Directors: Julie Davitt, Allen Handwerk, Jennifer Harper, Patricia Karo, Shari Noctor, Mary Spieker and Priscilla Rosado. Jenn Dietz is our new pantry coordinator, Susan Falkenstein, of Angel Resource Ministries, is one of our super shoppers, and Amy Sommers is our new volunteer coordinator.

A huge thank you goes to Whitehall Township Commissioner Jeffrey Warren for letting me know about the COVID-19 County Relief Block Grant; Laura Savenelli and Carmen Bell, from United Way, who answered my questions about this grant application process; Patricia Karo for helping me write the grant and explain to the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners why we needed $217,757.86 to help food-insecure residents in Whitehall and Coplay; Lehigh County Commissioners Geoff Brace, Percy H. Dougherty, Jeffrey Dutt, Bob Elbich, Marc Grammes, Dave Harrington, Dan Hartzell, Zakiya Smalls and Amy Zanelli for approving WCHI to receive the grant; and Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong for signing the contract with me.

With the grant money, the new WCHI garden will open in the spring, thanks to Anne Chickilly, Erik Segan, Jeff Warren and Mayor Michael Harakal Jr. The garden is located at the Mickley-Prydun Farm, with support from the township. In 2020, Chickilly and Segan grew vegetables at the garden and donated all of them for our Mickley Run Apartment outreach and community outreach programs.

The grant money also went for everything to operate our new food pantry.

Please call or text me at 484-225-0358 with any questions. I am here to help.