Dear Friends,

Our local food pantries and soup kitchens have risen to the challenge of increased need through the pandemic while adapting to safely serve their communities. With food prices going up nearly 13% over the past year, our Philadelphia food pantries and soup kitchens are experiencing new increases in demand. At the Coalition Against Hunger, we believe the best way to build food security in our region is to join forces with our local hunger fighters. That's why we engage our food pantry and soup kitchen partners through our Victory in Partnership (VIP) program to help us understand the needs of our communities.

In addition to pantries needing more food and funds to meet demand and ensure nutritionally well-rounded offerings, we have heard from our partners that they would benefit greatly from help with heavy lifting and distribution of food.

Head over to our pantry map to find a pantry in your area and reach out to see how you can help them fight hunger right in your neighborhood!

SNAP Hotline in Action 

Claire, one of our longtime SNAP Hotline counselors, recently helped a young woman who had been trying to get her SNAP benefits restored for months with no luck. This client was experiencing issues with her employment history on file when she was applying for benefits. When Claire determined that work history was the cause of the issues, she completed the client's application without the use of the Case ID number so that her work history would not pre-populate with the items that were creating problems. After submitting the application this way, the client’s benefits were restored and the client called our SNAP Hotline back to thank Claire for her help during such a frustrating process. 

If you would like assistance from our SNAP Hotline team, they are 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. Asistencia también disponible en Español. 

Policy and Advocacy

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

Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) Materials: As we’ve continued to update you about P-EBT benefits for kids K-12 in the 2021-2022 school year, we want to make sure that information about the program is widely and easily accessible. With our partners Philabundance and Just Harvest, we’ve created a P-EBT Basics Flyer to help families navigate the program. This flyer has been translated and is available in 14 languages including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Swahili, Khmer, Nepali, Arabic, Albanian, Uzbek, Portuguese, French, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Ukrainian. You can find all of the translated flyers here. Please share them widely among your networks!

Free and Reduced-Price School Meals: With many families preparing for their children to start a new school year in the coming weeks, we want to remind families what an important benefit school meals are. For the past two school years, many schools have been able to take advantage of pandemic-related waivers that have allowed them to provide meals to all children at no cost, with no paperwork required. Unfortunately, these waivers have expired, and so many families who have come to rely on these free meals may find themselves losing out on this crucial benefit unless they apply for the program. This year, families will need to apply for the Free and Reduced-Price School Meals program to continue receiving free or low-cost meals. Families can apply for this program by filling out an application with their child’s school or applying through COMPASS.

Community Eligibility Provision: Some schools provide meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a program that allows schools to provide meals to all students at no cost without paperwork. CEP is not tied to the pandemic, and so there will be no changes to CEP schools this year. If your child attends a CEP school, they will still be able to receive a free meal at no cost without filling out any paperwork. (Note: All Philadelphia School District Schools are CEP Schools). If your child does not attend a CEP school, be sure to fill out an application for the Free and Reduced-Price School Meals program!