Food insecurity is a concern in Pennsylvania, here’s what local organizations are doing about it

• Aniya Faulcon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Brett Sholtis / Transforming Health

Vegetables are shown in a cooler at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Dec. 3, 2019.

Airdate: Thursday, October 27, 2022

Every November with the holidays and cold weather looming, WITF is on the air with the central Pennsylvania Food bank for one day to raise money that goes toward feeding families. It is important every year but maybe even more significant in the last few years with the coronavirus pandemic, inflation, and the challenges that they have presented.

According to Feeding America, in Pennsylvania over one million people are facing hunger.

Joe Arthur, Executive Director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, and Dennis Curtin, Director of PR for Weis Markets joined us on Thursday’s Smart Talk to discuss the hunger crisis in Central Pennsylvania, its impact and what people can do to help.

Weis Markets is involved in the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank campaign. Curtin said, that his company is involved in helping the community in numerous ways; one of them is by participating in the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank campaign to fight food insecurity.

“If you do business in a community, we believe it’s important that you give back and that’s what we try to do,” Curtain said.

Arthur said, there are over 300,000 individuals that are food insecure and because of inflation, a substantial number of those individuals are reaching out for help, either for the first time or the first time in a long time.

In addition, Curtain said, there has been increase in SNAP usage since the pandemic, as monthly allotment has increased by 20 to 25% and is lasting longer into the month for individuals and families.

“This campaign each year is really important to us. So now more than ever, we have to buy a lot more of our food supply. Supply chains are still disrupted that means we have to buy more,” Arthur said. “So, these dollars are basically going to buy healthy food and the match from Weis Markets is just going to carry that purchasing power farther for Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. So think fresh produce, dairy meats, all those kinds of things now will be more in grasp for us.”

Arthur encouraged those who need help to contact the Central Pennsylvanian Food Bank.