SUNBURY, Pa. — Officials with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank recently completed a study on hunger and food insecurity in Snyder, Union, and Northumberland counties. The results of the study are now helping the food bank figure out how to better serve families in those communities.
"So we thought it was really important in collaboration with many of our partner organizations throughout these three counties to be able to better understand food insecurity, better understand our charitable food system response, and a variety of other things," said Zach Zook Central Pennsylvania food bank director of impact and policy.
Zach Zook is the Director of Impact and Policy at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. He says the study showed that households with children in Snyder, Union and Northumberland counties under utilize food assistance programs. Zook is hoping to change that.
"We also look at government programs, throughout the report like school breakfast, school lunch, SNAP, all of these things are really important for people to access the food that they need."
Zook says although there are a fair number of food pantries in Snyder, Union, and Northumberland counties, the issue is the size of the food pantry and funding available.
"Charitable food demand has actually increased dramatically over the last several years and funding hasn't really increased for state and federal programs so that's something that remains an opportunity for us."
Zook tells us the Central PA Food Bank has been working closely in partnership with the Union Snyder Hunger Coalition and the Union Snyder, Northumberland Food Access Committee. Central PA Food Bank hopes to increase hours of operations and access for those in need.
"And we're really just gonna lean into the role of the charitable food system as the lowest barrier social service access point and making sure that people can connect to the resources that they might need whether that's food or other types of resources as well."