Right here in Bucks County, 1 in 10 residents and 16% of all children (64,000 people, in total) are considered “food insecure,” meaning that they don’t have reliable access to a sufficient quality of affordable, nutritious food.
Among our friends and neighbors, there are children going to bed hungry, families torn between getting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads, and older adults skipping meals so that they can afford medication.
You can help change that by volunteering or donating to Bucks Knocks Out Hunger, a one-day food packing event and a fundraiser for Bucks County’s food pantries.
Over 100,000 nutritious, shelf-stable meals are packed by volunteers at just 25 cents each. Donations will also help provide tens of thousands of pounds of locally grown produce, lean proteins, and other items that can be hard for pantries to obtain.
This is the impact of our collective donations:
- $22,500 allows Bucks County volunteers to pack and distribute 100,000 meals. Meal supplies are purchased through Outreach, Inc. for just 22.5 cents per meal.
- $20,000 provides meals AND allows United Way of Bucks County to work with Delaware Valley College’s Hope of the Harvest Charitable Garden and greenhouses to provide more than 54,000 lbs of produce. We also work with Rolling Harvest Food Rescue which works with small, sustainable farms in Bucks County to provide additional produce.
- $12,500 secures lean proteins and other perishable items that do not typically come in through food drives. This money helps pantries fill the gaps when they are critically low. Funds are distributed through the network of pantries by Bucks County Opportunity Council.
- $15,000 will be allocated to a new project chosen by the hunger and food insecurity Community Solutions Team.
You can make a donation to Bucks Knocks Out Hunger by clicking here, or sign up to volunteer at the packing event on June 17 by clicking here. If you’d like to find other ways to help, contact Tim Philpot at timp@uwbucks.org or call 215-949-1660, ext. 104.