Combating Food Insecurity in Pennsylvania: How PA Navigate Can Help
With over 1,300 searches, "Food Pantry" was the most searched for term in the first quarter of 2024.
Food insecurity continues to affect many Pennsylvanians, with families across the state facing challenges in accessing food at all, let alone nutritious and affordable food. Rising living costs, economic inequality, and limited access to grocery stores in certain areas have left many households struggling to put meals on the table. Pennsylvania is taking steps to address these issues, and one key resource is PA Navigate, a state-supported program designed to connect residents with essential services and benefits.
Understanding Food Insecurity in Pennsylvania
Food insecurity, like many challenges families face, is both straightforward and deeply complex. It impacts individuals from all walks of life, including working families, seniors, and children. According to Feeding Pennsylvania, nearly 1.3 million Pennsylvanians experience hunger. For many, this means skipping meals or relying on food pantries. For others, it may mean sacrificing essentials like utility payments to afford groceries, creating a cascade of additional challenges.
The issue extends beyond simply having enough to eat. It’s about consistent access to nutritious food, the resources, and skills to prepare it, and the financial stability to maintain a healthy diet. Food need is intertwined with broader factors like housing, transportation, education, and overall well-being, making it a multidimensional challenge that requires comprehensive solutions – and those solutions cannot be solved by simply health care or community-based organizations alone – solutions must be created by these groups working together. And it is with this concept in mind that PA Navigate can help.
One Organization Making a Difference
Bucks County Opportunity Council (BCOC) is the leading anti-poverty nonprofit organization in Bucks County working to reduce poverty and partner with the community to promote economic self-sufficiency. Over the last year, BCOC saw over 88,900 visits to their food pantry network, 3.3 million pounds of food distributed, 40,717 visits to their Fresh Connect program, and over 5,196 senior food boxes delivered. Erin Lukoss, Executive Director, shares, “Our goal is always to keep people fed, but it’s beyond that, it’s to get people fresh, nutritious food that they can’t often buy on limited or fixed income…as the lead food agency for the county, we get a lot of local support from retailers, people such as Wegmans, Giant, Amazon Fresh, and others…” Lukoss goes on to explain more about BCOC’s Fresh Connect program, “The one thing I absolutely love about the program is that we have some nutrition partners that offer a recipe. So one of our partners, Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, they are a grassroots organization that grows, as well as gleans, lots of fresh vegetables and fruit from local farmers…they bring recipes and not only share the recipes, but they make the food and bring it and give out samples to people so that people that didn’t ever see an acorn squash before know what to do with it. And people love that, and they love to tell us, showing pictures, ‘look what I made, look what we did.’ We’ve had people write to us and tell us that they’ve lost weight, their blood pressure has gone down, they’re just overall healthier.”
And the impact goes far beyond nutrition. Fresh Connect fosters a sense of belonging and community. Families meet and interact while they gather food, volunteers form connections with participants, and everyone involved knows they are part of something bigger than themselves. Over the years, this program has created "micro-communities" where people check in on one another, share recipes, and build friendships.
To learn more about BCOC, please visit www.bcoc.org, or listen to episode 4 of the podcast, The Thinking CAAP, where Lukoss shares more about their programs.
How PA Navigate Plays a Part
PA Navigate helps in multiple capacities:
Individuals can search for services in their local communities and get connected.
Community-Based Organizations can provide referrals to individuals or receive referrals from local health providers of individuals and families who are in need.
Providers can place referrals for individuals or families to community-based organizations, like BCOC, who can help connect people to their local services.
Get Started with PA Navigate
If you or someone you know is struggling with food insecurity, PA Navigate is here to help. Visit www.pa-navigate.org to explore available resources and connect with a local community-based organization that can help you navigate the services that individual can access.
If you are a nonprofit, community-based organization, or know of an organization that should be connected to this platform, please visit www.pa-navigatehelp.org where a Community Engagement Manager can help!
By leveraging this platform, families can access the support they need to lead healthier, more stable lives. Together, we can work toward a Pennsylvania where everyone has access to nutritious food and essential services.