Dear Friends,

Now that summer has begun, more and more summer meal locations are opening up and ready to serve free meals to kids and teens 18 and younger. There are now over 475 locations throughout Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery County, with many more opening up next week. No registration, ID or proof of income is required. If you’d like to find the closest locations to you, we have some resources to help. View our Summer Meals Map at www.phillysummermeals.org, or give our Summer Meals Hotline a call at 215-770-4659 Monday - Thursday 9am-5pm or on Friday from 9am-4pm. 

Help us fight summer hunger by downloading our 2022 Summer Meals Toolkit and spreading the word. No child should go hungry!

Policy and Advocacy

SNAP Emergency Allotments (EAs): The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved Pennsylvania’s request to issue EAs in July. 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 July.

P-EBT- What Parents Need to Know: This past Wednesday, we partnered with Philabundance and Just Harvest to host a webinar to help families navigate P-EBT for K-12 students in the 2021-2022 school year. If you were not able to join us live, it’s not too late to watch the webinar. We covered what P-EBT is, which children can receive benefits, how benefits will be administered, when families can expect to receive payments, and so much more. Watch the webinar, here. You can also sign up for P-EBT updates at cutt.ly/pebtq.

Keep Kids Fed Act: Last Saturday, President Biden signed the Keep Kids Fed Act into law. This act includes several important provisions that have the potential to expand food access for kids this summer. These include:

1. Extending USDA’s authority to grant nationwide waivers for summer meal sites operating  through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) or the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) through September 30th.
2. Granting USDA authority to issue more limited nationwide waivers for the 2022-2023 school year.
3. Providing higher reimbursement rates for schools serving meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

While USDA has been granted authority to issue nationwide waivers for Summer 2022, those waivers have not yet been issued, and so we still have many questions about how summer meal sites will be affected by the passage of this Act. It is important to remember that while the Keep Kids Fed Act provides many flexibilities, there are certain flexibilities that have been granted in previous school years that this Act does not provide. Among other things, the Keep Kids Fed Act does not:

1. Allow for nationwide universal free school meals for the 2022-2023 school year.
2. Eliminate the “reduced price” lunch category.

As we continue to learn more about how the Keep Kids Fed Act will affect summer food service, we will keep updating you. And in the meantime, find a summer meal site in your neighborhood by visiting www.phillysummermeals.org or calling 215-770-4659.

Food Pantries & Soup Kitchens

The Coalition’s 2022 Pantry and Soup Kitchen Survey is in full-swing! If you are the coordinator of an area food pantry or soup kitchen, please take a few moments to provide us with the most up-to-date information on your program using this google form:  https://forms.gle/HnkpBCoaU3or8Cby9. If you would prefer for someone to call you and complete the survey over the phone, please email Dangela at [email protected] or leave a voicemail for her at 215-430-0555, x1101. However you chose to participate, we would love to hear from you!

The Coalition uses this information to:

• Update your program's information and hours in our database for more accurate referrals
• Tell legislators why it's important to support programs that keep people from going hungry
• Raise public awareness about how food pantries and soup kitchens fight hunger in our community
• Search for connections to resources that your program is in need of and to talk about our work with donors and funders.

Join Our Team

We're looking for the next hunger fighter to join our team and manage the daily operations of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. This is a multi-faceted position that includes accounting, managing systems, office space, and the recruitment of volunteers. Know someone who might be a good fit as our Operations Manager? Please share this position and apply today!

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 to help 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.

If you are looking to visit the County Assistance Offices (CAO), they are now 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.