SREHUP is proud to partner with Lancaster Farm Fresh to get shares of fresh produce to people experiencing food insecurity. The grant started in May and runs until Late August.

Through grants from the USDA, SREHUP receives 320 boxes each week of fresh vegetables from Lancaster Farm Fresh.

Each box can feed a family of 4 with fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, and yogurt for a week.

When SREHUP was chosen for this partnership, we knew we wanted to create a new model for feeding those who were food insecure. Previous food distribution efforts were centrally located in food pantries throughout the city. Many communities, including Delaware County, had no food pantry in existence. Food distribution was limited to certain times of the day. People in need had to find a way to the food, hope that there was enough still available when they arrived, and often stand in long lines to receive the food. This model presents several barriers to access: people need to find transportation, which is often expensive or nonexistent in places where the need is greatest. The long lines are often embarrassing for people who are struggling, as their economic hardship is now public. And long lines also increase risk of COVID spread, which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. 

To eliminate these barriers, we created a system where food was hand delivered directly to the people who needed it most.

We reached out to city council members, including council members Jamie Gauthier, Mark Squilla, and Allan Domb, to provide us with lists of their constituents in need. We reached out to service providers and social workers for clients in need.

We then reached out to volunteers to deliver the food directly to the addresses we were given. We built a database and managed to create a system of hand-delivering the boxes directly to 320 households of people who need it most.

In the middle of a pandemic. In the middle of uprising and food insecurity and food deserts. By volunteers who said: my compassion is greater than my fear. It is greater than my despair.

Yes, there is darkness. But there are equal parts light and love in the world, and you keep showing up, you keep loving harder in the face of the devastation all around us.

This is community. This is love. This is vital. For emotional volunteers and hungry community members alike.

If you are able to donate food and supplies to families in need, or to help us deliver supplies, please reach out and we will put you on our team!