Pennsylvania Ave. Interfaith Food Pantry

Current News and Advocacy Actions

As you may be aware, Second Harvest Food Bank has felt a tremendous effect on their resources as a result of the economy. Many of the products we used to receive from this agency are harder to get, if at all. This has caused the Pantry to dip into our financial reserves and has left us with fewer options. Moving forward, we will need to rely more on personal donations. Since we are quickly approaching the holidays, I would like to ask you to encourage your co-workers to donate food, time, or money to our pantry or another pantry that serves their community. A food drive at your work is easy, everyone can do it, and most likely your boss would not discourage you from doing it.If they tolerate the football pools, I doubt they would mind this. Please consider a food drive at your work. The list below are items that are always in need of so please concert your efforts on these items:

Hours of Operation:

Open the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month from 6 PM to 8 PM - except for church holidays.

Location:

The Pennsylvania Avenue Interfaith Food Pantry is located at St. Andrew's Church (see map) at 1900 Pennsylvania Ave., Allentown, PA 18109.

Mailing Address:

Pennsylvania Ave. Interfaith Food Pantry

PO Box 4243

Bethlehem, PA 18018-0243

Our Food Pantry is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and financial donations

should go directly to the Pennsylvania Avenue Interfaith Food Pantry.

·      We could use food shopping volunteers to purchase essential groceries at Aldi,

       Bottom Dollar, PriceRight or other local discount markets on a semi-regular basis.

·       Donations of mac & cheese, peanut butter, jelly. soups, canned pasta (like Chef  Boyardee), 

        boxed potato products, mac & cheese boxes, regular pasta & pasta

        sauce, plus canned fruit and vegetables would be extremely  welcome!

·        If you have unexpired grocery store coupons, donate them to us so           

        others can share.

·       Daytime volunteers are needed to help unload deliveries from Second 

        Harvest Food Bank and to stock shelves (usually on Thursday mornings).

Did you know?

Two years ago, when we first opened our food pantry, we had very few visitors – no one knew the Pennsylvania Ave. Interfaith Food Pantry even existed. However that soon changed.

Last year, the Pennsylvania Ave. Interfaith Food Pantry averaged 36 families – now we serve 62 families -quite an increase.

Unfortunately, with the economy and cutbacks to the Pennsylvania State budget, it has become difficult to keep our shelves stocked. Our empty shelves have a direct correlation to Pennsylvania’s budget reductions.

Second Harvest, which supplies most of the food pantries in the area, has undergone serious funding cutbacks. For that reason, we need to rely even more on donor support to keep this mission functioning.

If you have questions, would like to donate, or you represent an organization interested in participating in PAIFP, please contact:  484-892-1589 - Craig Updegrove.