Dear Friends,

Thank you to everyone who participated in or made a donation to the 26th Race Against Hunger. While the walking, running and biking is over, the fundraising continues through the end of May. Let’s keep the momentum going! Encourage friends, family and neighbors to contribute before May 31. Funds raised from the Race support not just our programs at the Coalition Against Hunger, but also the programs of many of our anti-hunger partners throughout the Greater Philadelphia region as well. There is so much more work to do in the fight against hunger, but together we can build a community where all people have the food they need to lead healthy lives.

Please remember to share your Race Against Hunger photos with us, either by tagging us on socials @GPCAHunger while using the hashtags #RAH26 and #RAH2022 or by emailing us your photos ([email protected])

Celebration of Derek Felton's Life and Legacy

The family of Derek Felton and the Coalition Against Hunger will be celebrating Derek's life on Saturday, May 14th from 11am-12noon on Zoom. If you have not already reached out to let us know you are interested in attending, please fill out this Google Form with your name and email address, and we will send you the Zoom link for the service next week.  

This year’s Race Against Hunger was dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague, Derek Felton. Our Executive Director, Melody Keim, kicked-off this year’s virtual event with a video message remembering Derek. Derek’s family gathered at the Philadelphia Art Museum (the original location of the Race/Walk Against Hunger) on May 29th to close out walking in his honor. 

Exciting Additions to Our Coalition Team

New to Our Team: We are excited to announce that Alison Volz has joined our Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger team as our Community Educator. In this role, Alison will be working to increase awareness and understanding around the issue of food insecurity, our programs at the Coalition, and increasing SNAP enrollment across the region. Please join us in congratulating Alison and welcoming her to our team!

Open Position: We’re looking for an innovative Director of Development & Communications to join our team! Are you or someone you know interested? To learn more or to apply, click here.

Policy and Advocacy

SNAP Emergency Allotments (EAs): The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved Pennsylvania’s request to issue (EAs) in May. EAs are the extra SNAP payments issued in the second half of the month. For more information, including payment dates, see our EA Flyer for May

Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT): Great news! Pennsylvania has been approved to issue P-EBT benefits for eligible K-12 students in the 2021-2022 school year. As a reminder, P-EBT is a program that gives families money to purchase food to replace free or reduced-price school meals that eligible students missed due to COVID-19 related absences of 5 school days in a row or more. If your child had a COVID-related absence during the 2021-2022 school year and is eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, they may be eligible for a P-EBT benefit. While benefits likely won’t start going out until late June or early July, there are a few things you can do now:

• If you have any P-EBT cards from a previous year, hold on to them!
• Make sure your child’s school has your current mailing address and the correct birthdate for any school-aged children in your family.
• If your child is a new student (entered kindergarten in fall 2021 or entered a different school district), fill out an application for free or reduced-price school meals as soon as possible. You can usually find the application on the school’s website or you can apply through COMPASS.

Community Conversations Report: In Spring 2021, the Anti-Hunger Subcommittee of the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council (FPAC) started the Community Conversations Project. This included a series of informal interviews to better understand the issues that organizations doing food security work were experiencing on the ground. At the Coalition Against Hunger, we had the pleasure of being involved in this project and participating in some of the interviews. 22 Community Conversations were completed, after which the notes from these interviews were analyzed by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University. The Anti-Hunger Subcommittee recently released a report identifying key themes from the conversations and subsequent policy and programmatic asks. We hope you will read the report and learn from the wisdom of the many non-profit organizations interviewed for the project that address hunger in diverse ways. These organizations include food pantries, social service programs, farms and gardens, and advocacy groups.

SNAP Hotline

Our Coalition Against Hunger SNAP Hotline team is here to help! Whether it’s navigating the SNAP application process or providing case management, our SNAP Hotline team is available Monday – Thursday from 9:00am to 5:00 pm and on Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Give our SNAP Hotline team a call at 215-430-0556.

And if you are looking to visit the County Assistance Offices (CAO), they are open for in-person assistance. You can visit their offices or contact their Customer Service Center at 215-560-7226 (Philadelphia) or 877-395-8930 (statewide). For phone numbers and addresses of all Philadelphia County Assistance offices, please use this link.