2024 Year In Review

2024

YEAR IN REVIEW CEO Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank

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2024 Year in Review

FROM OUR DIRECTORS Dear Friends, Your support in 2024 has meant so much to us. Without your support - your contributions of food, financial support and time - we could not have moved 17.6 million pounds of food out into the community to feed more than 1.1 million people. Your contributions made this possible!

This year we have faced great challenges. The high cost of food is impacting not only individual households and exacerbating food insecurity, but it is also impacting the Food Bank’s ability to meet the food needs of our community. We have long had the approach of using food purchase to fill in the gaps of what food we can access via donated and government commodity channels. In 2024 we spent more dollars on food, but acquired less food with those funds than in 2023.

We are fighting an uphill battle – more people are food insecure and food costs more. This is why your support is so critical.

With Gratitude,

&

Jennifer Warabak

Mary Ellen Spellman

Executive Director

Food Bank Director

In 2024, more than 21,000 people received food assistance from our network of partners each week.

We maintained our commitment to healthy food options in 2024. More than 77% of the 17.6 million pounds of food provided, was healthy food choices and 27% was fresh produce.

2024 Year in Review

OUR FOOD BANK DEPENDS ON YOU EVERY STEP OF THE WAY

Our food banking model is grounded in efficiency and equity.

By sourcing a wide variety of food items and providing it to our vast network of partners we are able to offer equitable access to food throughout the entire region. We leverage food donations and commodity foods with wholesale purchased foods, along with the infrastructure of our 65,000 square foot facility and fleet of trucks to meet the needs of our community.

2024 Year in Review

HOW WE WORK The Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank serves four counties in northeast PA: Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna and Wyoming. The mission of the CEO/Weinberg Food Bank is to reduce hunger and promote healthy nutrition among poor and vulnerable people, especially children and the elderly.

The Food Bank collects food from the entire food system - from growers to retailers. We coordinate and support a network of partners to move the food from warehouse to table - quickly and efficiently. The network relies heavily on volunteers, small non-profit organizations and faith-based community services.

The Weinberg Food Bank is committed to constant growth and developing innovative solutions to hunger.

Collect Food Food is sourced locally, regionally and nationally. Foods may be donated, government commodities, or purchased at wholesale prices. We prioritize healthy food and fresh produce in particular.

Warehouse & Deliver Food is received at our distribution center near Pittston. Free delivery is offered to all of our partner agencies. Some receive justin-time deliveries on the day of food give-aways and others get deliveries to re-stock their on-site inventory.

Work with Partners The Food Bank has more than 300 partners including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and meal programs hosted by community and faith-based organizations, schools, childcare and youth programs, senior programs and housing, libraries, and local municipalities. We provide training and technical assistance to all of our partners.

Food to Families Our partners provide food in the form of either groceries or prepared meals to families and individuals. Some partners offer conventient drive-through food pick up and in others, families can shop and select the food items they prefer.

2024

THE YEAR IN REVIEW In 2024, more than 21,000 people received food assistance from our network of partners each week - this is up from 17,600 people served per week in 2023.

SOURCES OF FOOD:

10000000

Souces of food fall into one of three categories - donated food from all levels of the food system, government commodity food, and wholesale purchased food.

8000000 6000000 4000000 2000000 Donated 43.8%

W yo m in g

Su sq ue ha nn a

La ck aw an na

0

Lu ze rn e

Commodity 38.8%

FOOD DISTRIBUTION BY COUNTY Purchased 17.5%

17.6 million

1.1 million

769,978

Pounds of food

People served

Prepared meals

17,687,746 pounds of food was provided to our network of partners in 2024. Our partners in turn, provided groceries or meals to their neighbors who struggle to put food on the table.

Over the past 12 months, take home groceries were provided for 1,113,315 people.

This total includes repeat visits to food pantries.

Our partners provided over 3/4 of a million prepared meals in 2024.

We experienced a 23% increase in visits over 2023.

Meal partners include soup kitchens, childcare and youth programs, after school snacks and free community meals.

2024 Year in Review

MORE THAN FOOD Training & Technical Assistance

Equipment

Annual conferences, monthly meetings, e-newsletters, online and on-site training cover topics including food safety training, civil rights, respect & dignity, operational best practices like choice food pantries, food rescue and more are all part of the work we do.

Healthy food is often perishable.

Without proper storage, our network cannot effectively distribute healthy food.

This year alone, we granted 67 cold storage units to 49 partners.

In 2024, 281 partner representatives completed safe food handling training and 17 volunteers completed Food Ambassador training that included cultural competency, food safety and nutrition components.

Education Nutrition education is a core component of our work. We want food recipients to know how to prepare and enjoy the food provided to them.

In 2024, we provided nutrition education to 10,927 unique individuals, including 8,500 children.

2024 Year in Reviw

TRENDS IN FOOD INSECURITY It is estimated, by Feeding America that the current rate of Food Insecurity in our region increased by 13% over 2019 for a total estimated population of 83,300 food insecure individuals.

Local data shows the number of visits to our partner food pantries have more than doubled (from 214,200 visits in 2019 to 470,293 visits in 2024), yet the available food has only increased by roughly 40% (from 12.5 million pounds to 17.6 million pounds).

500000 400000 300000 200000 100000 0

PANTRY VISITS 119% increase in annual visits to partner food pantries since 2019 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

FOOD COSTS

5000000 4000000 3000000 2000000 1000000 0

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

The cost of food continues to climb; this drives increased demand for food assistance & results in food shortages.

Locally, statewide and nationally, there is a shortage of food in the charitable network.

2024 Year in Review

HOW YOU CAN HELP The Food Bank works because of the collaborative spirit of partners and the broad community support it receives. The three major areas of need and opportunity are volunteerism, financial support, and food donations.

Donate

Voluteer 4,998 volunteers gave 14,955 volunteer hours in 2024!

Find out how to get involved by visiting: www.ceopeoplehelpingpeople.org /volunteers

Without our donors - large and small, public and private, we could not provide food to so many.

Donate today: www.ceopeoplehelpingpeople.org /donate

Food Rescue Is there a food business near you? Do you know an owner or operator of a local food business? Help us connect with local food donors. For more information visit: www.ceopeoplehelpingpeople.org/fooddonor

2024 Year in Review

OUR TEAM Mary Ellen Spellman, Food Bank Director Matthew Krupa, Director of Operations Amanda Brueckler, Agency Distribution Manager Debra Taylor, Corporate and Community Relations Kyle Barthold, Data Manager Kim Grzesek, Food Bank Partnership Manager Dan Yaglowski, Warehouse Manager Tony Teberio, Receiving Manager Bill Golightly and Jenn Morgan, Senior Food Box Program Drivers & Warehouse Workers: Brian Carroll, Henry Caruthers, Lou Dominick, Dale McCloe, Ryan O’Malley, Jeff Vose, Rich Yanchus Nutrition Educators: Ingrid Balsamo, Mary Kay D'Elia, Chandra Galliford, Kim McLendon, Kathy Lockman, Mary Parrs, Margaret Raniero, Rachel Rovinski, Joan Saxon, Rolly Smith Rod Blaine, Director of Administration & Finance Gretchen Hunt, Director of Resource Development