I wanted to write part of this week’s article on Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania. This is to inform you what they do for the community and what they do for Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative.

In October 1982, the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley created Lehigh Valley Food Bank. CACLV today is known as Community Action Lehigh Valley. More information can be found at communityactionlv.org.

Starting with a network of about 15 agencies in Lehigh and Northampton counties, what has come to be known as Second Harvest Food Bank now serves 200 agencies in a six-county area, including Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties.

From the beginning, the twofold objective of Second Harvest was the distribution of food to needy people and the elimination of waste in the food industry.

To discourage food industry waste, Second Harvest seeks donations of unsalable, but edible, product from local companies.

Second Harvest’s mission is to obtain food and distribute it to people in need through area nonprofits and to provide resources for education and advocacy to end hunger. At Second Harvest, they believe all people deserve access to healthy, nourishing food.

Second Harvest works to eliminate food insecurity by providing nutritious food to those in need, dismantling access barriers and advocating for health and racial equity. More information can be found at shfblv.org.

Second Harvest receives funding from federal, state and local governments, along with private donations from grant writing, local grocery stores and public and other donations. WCHI and other food pantries in Lehigh County also benefit from food purchased by Second Harvest through Lehigh County grant funds.

WCHI has two accounts with Second Harvest. One is for our food pantry. WCHI could never serve as many Whitehall-Coplay School District residents as we do without our partnership with Second Harvest. In January 2026, WCHI served 308 households, consisting of 409 children, 514 adults and 240 seniors for a total of 1,163 people.

This is very similar to December 2025, when we served 307 households, consisting of 430 children, 505 adults and 237 seniors for a total of 1,172 people.

Note: Some people come monthly, some don’t always need food in a particular month, and some people get sick or are called into work and cannot attend one of our food distributions. Every month, we do have brand-new households attending.

The other Second Harvest account is for the free community meals, referred to by Second Harvest as soup kitchens. While most of our community meal partners do not request food from WCHI to prepare the bimonthly meals, the soup kitchen account is available if a meal partner needs something Second Harvest has available, like a case of green beans.

We offer two free meals a month to WCSD residents on the first Sunday and third Tuesday of the month. Our meal partners served 1,813 meals in 2025.

The locations are listed on our website at whitehallcoplayhungerinitiative.org.

Second Harvest is not a grocery store, and not all items are available every week.

When WCHI first opened the food pantry, Second Harvest was not charging member agencies for food. I believe Second Harvest had grants then like they do now.

In 2021, WCHI ordered 122,297 pounds of pantry food from Second Harvest with a value of $133,068, with WCHI being charged nothing or a nominal amount. In 2025, WCHI ordered 196,671 pounds of food from Second Harvest with a value of $260,715.85, and WCHI was charged $5,535 for all this food.

WCHI could never feed as many people as we do without Second Harvest.

WCHI currently needs canned chickpeas, light and dark kidney beans, pinto beans, canned fruit in natural juices, diced tomatoes and non-sugary cereal.

Thank you, Second Harvest and everyone in our community, for your continued support. You all are helping WCHI to accomplish our mission to alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall and Coplay.

Have a great week!