Our Thanksgiving was wonderful this year. My family was able to congregate at our house, despite several of them living in other states. My two unmarried sons brought girlfriends who expanded our topics of conversation and choices of food. We ate too much and caught up with each other’s activities. We all felt blessed and thankful to be employed, healthy, and able to afford this holiday and the next one to come. However, knowing that I was to write this blog this week, my thoughts occasionally drifted to what it would be like to not have these advantages. I was hoping that those who needed food went to one of the food cupboards that had prepared extra bags of Thanksgiving foods including a frozen turkey. I know that our church gave away over 130 bags of food last week.
In my job at Penn State Cooperative Extension, I manage two federal nutrition education grants, targeted to the low income population. The six nutrition education advisors that work with me teach families, children, and seniors how to choose healthy foods, how to stretch their food dollars, and how to prepare tasty recipes and handle food safely. Our nutrition education is a proactive approach that provides children a chance to taste fresh fruits and vegetables, teaches moms how to cook chicken nuggets at home instead of purchasing fast food and seniors how to cook with less salt and fat. We encourage our clients to get SNAP and WIC, if they qualify, so they can select healthy foods that their family likes. We hope that this will reduce the number of people needing emergency food at food cupboards in the next year.
When people do not have adequate physical, social or economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, they are considered to be food insecure. A yearly survey is completed to measure food insecurity in the United States and the 2009 report (released November 2010) indicated one in four children in the U.S. were food insecure.
In Delaware County, most of our poorer neighborhoods border Philadelphia and the Delaware River. These “first suburbs” have many of the problems found in urban areas, including hunger. In Chester City, 34.8 percent of individuals were below the poverty line, compared to a county average of 11.9 percent. In thirty seven schools in Delaware County, over half of students qualify for free or reduced price lunches based on poverty statistics.
Emergency food in Delaware County is available through the Delco Interfaith Food Assistance Network (DIFAN), a collection of eleven food cupboards in Delaware County that are supported with federal and state food assistance funding as well as food received from local food drives and churches. Some of their food is purchased from Philabundance, the regional food bank who receives donations from food distribution and production companies, large food drives and local food sources. The DIFAN sites provided 1,114,707 meals to hungry families in Delaware County in FY 2010. A large increase in demand occurred in 2008 and hasn’t tapered off as the economy continues to stagnate so DIFAN sites look for donations and funding to keep their neighbors fed.
To find a food cupboard or to donate, call DIFAN at 610-566-7540.
Food resources for children include the breakfast and lunch programs at school, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (available to child care sites), Head Start, WIC and summer and after school feeding programs. SNAP benefits may also be available for children, even if adults do not qualify. To find out whether you qualify for SNAP benefits, call the county assistance office or Marilyn Sileo at Community Action at 610-874-8451 ext.1051.
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