SNAP Hotline Our SNAP Hotline continues to operate Monday – Thursday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and on Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at 215-430-0556. - Click the link for the City of Philadelphia’s list of COVID-19 food distribution site locations across Philadelphia for student, senior and outdoor food pick up sites.
- Click the link for listings (phone numbers and addresses) of all Philadelphia County Assistance offices. While offices remain closed to the public at this time, you can drop off paperwork in "drop boxes" outside. Note, however, when calling it is often quicker to contact the Customer Service Center at 215-560-7226 (Philadelphia) or 877-395-8930 (statewide).
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Policy and Advocacy In previous weeks, we have informed you of important details about SNAP “Emergency Allotments” (EAs), and CLS’ successful lawsuit that has brought hundreds of millions in SNAP benefits to PA families. We recently shared this flyer, however we know there remains a lot of confusion about EAs. To provide another resource, our Community Educator, Katie, has put together this video. The video explains what EAs are, how they work, who is eligible for the EA settlement dollars, and when those settlement funds should be received (in fact, many have already gone out). Please share it widely! Looking ahead, we know there is much work to be done to recover from the COVID crisis. Even before the pandemic, children in America went hungry at alarming rates. Childhood hunger has dramatically increased since. Childcare and school closures have cut off access to affordable meals for millions of children, while high levels of unemployment have made it harder for families to put food on the table. The pandemic has also compounded the damage caused by long standing institutional racism, low wages, and other inequities that fuel higher rates of food insecurity for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous families. Policymakers have a choice to address these issues! They can start by adequately funding nutrition programs to reach and feed all children in need. Following the lead of our indispensable national partner, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), we urge you to use the FRAC Action Network to send emails to your Members of Congress to support two important pieces of legislation to tackle childhood hunger in America: • The Summer Meals Act of 2021 would ensure low-income children across the country have access to the nutrition they need during the summer months, when they lose access to healthy school meals. • The Access to Healthy Food for Young Children Act would support healthy nutrition for children in childcare through strengthening the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which is similar to the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs that provide meals to students in k-12 schools. |
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Food Pantry & Soup Kitchens NEW CORRECT DATE: If you are a food pantry or soup kitchen leader, please join us for the Coalition’s next Victory in Partnership (VIP) meeting to be held on Thursday, June 10th from 10:30-12noon on Zoom. Vonetta Robinson from Aunt Bertha will show us how to include the details about our community services in their national database free of charge. Contact Tanya at [email protected] for more details and the link for the meeting. |
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