From Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank<\/p>\n
On Oct. 1,\u00a0Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank\u00a0held\u00a0its fourth\u00a0annual\u00a0Celebration of Community & Hope in Berks County at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Reading.<\/p>\n
The event raised\u00a0funds for Helping Harvest in support of its mission to\u00a0feed\u00a0neighbors experiencing hunger. Local restaurants\u00a0were set up\u00a0throughout the evening, giving guests the chance to sample some of the best food in Berks County while connecting with community members who share a commitment to ending hunger. Participating restaurants included\u00a0Cheers Bistro at the DoubleTree<\/a>,\u00a0Helping Harvest Community Kitchen<\/a>,\u00a0Sweet Ride Ice Cream<\/a>,\u00a0Sweet Street Desserts<\/a>,\u00a0Telia Perfect Greek<\/a>,\u00a0Thorn Alley Kitchen<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0West Reading Tavern<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the third consecutive year,\u00a0The GIANT Company<\/a>\u00a0served as presenting sponsor.\u00a0Other sponsors included\u00a0Customers Bank<\/a>,\u00a0Weik Capital Management<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0over 50\u00a0additional Berks County supporters.<\/p>\n The evening was hosted by\u00a0Timothy\u00a0Santoro, Divisional Vice President of The GIANT Company and member of the Helping Harvest Board of Directors. Speakers included Dr.\u00a0Susan Looney, President of\u00a0Reading Area Community College<\/a>;\u00a0Jay Worrall, President of Helping Harvest;\u00a0and\u00a0Jess Umbenhauer, Chief Operating Officer of Helping Harvest. The program opened with an invocation from\u00a0Pastor Zach Labagh\u00a0of\u00a0Allegheny Evangelical Lutheran Church\u00a0in\u00a0Mohnton\u00a0and featured\u00a0a special video message from the Chief Executive Officer\u00a0of\u00a0Feeding America<\/a>,\u00a0Denis McDonough.<\/p>\n The event featured a musical performance by students from the\u00a0Berks Youth Chorus<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Olivet Boys & Girls Club<\/a>, led by Megan Charlesworth, Director of the Berks Youth Chorus, and Brianna Williams, Coordinator of the Olivet Center for Performing Arts, offered in gratitude for a historic gift from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, who donated $1 million to Helping Harvest last summer.<\/p>\n In his opening remarks, host Timothy Santoro reminded guests of the urgency behind the evening: \u201cSadly, hunger continues to be a serious global issue. In the United States, 47.9 million adults are living in homes where there is not enough to eat, and our local communities are not exempt.\u201d<\/p>\n The program included a special tribute to Reading Area Community College, recognized for\u00a0its dedication to the community.\u00a0Helping Harvest\u2019s\u00a0COO Jess Umbenhauer offered her thanks directly: \u201cWe deeply value the partnership that we have with RACC and your organization\u2019s commitment to ensuring your students and neighbors have access to food.\u201d<\/p>\n The evening also recognized the Helping Harvest Board of Directors and honored the extraordinary network of agency partners, pantry coordinators, volunteers, and staff who make the mission possible each day.\u00a0Jay\u00a0Worrall, President of Helping Harvest,\u00a0began his remarks with an\u00a0expression of\u00a0gratitude, asking all staff, volunteers, board members, and supporters of partner agencies to stand and be recognized: \u201cYou don\u2019t just distribute food \u2014 you give people hope, dignity, and joy. You are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n In his address, Worrall reported that Helping Harvest has had a year of exceptional growth. In 2025, the organization distributed 11.1 million pounds of food valued at $22 million \u2014 more than ever before in its history. Through the date of the event, Helping Harvest had already distributed 9.4 million pounds valued at $17.2 million in 2026, running 20 percent ahead of the same period the prior year, putting the organization on pace to distribute over 13 million pounds valued at nearly $24 million by year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n Worrall\u00a0closed by\u00a0looking to the future. He described a supply chain study undertaken with experts from Boscov\u2019s, East Penn Manufacturing, Penske, Mrs. T\u2019s Pierogies, GIANT Foods, The Evans Network, and Savor Street Foods, tasked with charting what Helping Harvest would need to distribute 30 million pounds of food by 2030. Early recommendations focus on strengthening the volunteer program, improving food handling and storage, and investing in new truck routing technology. A community campaign to fund those improvements is expected to follow the Board\u2019s review of the study results.<\/p>\n He concluded with a message about what makes all of it possible: \u201cHelping Harvest does not fight food insecurity on its own. We make that fight side-by-side with amazing partners. Some who run pantries, some who put produce in bags, some who drive Meals on Wheels or make Weekender Deliveries, some who help us make those meals. Some are songwriters and football players. Not only are we all in this together, but none of us could do it on our own. Together, we really can end hunger in Berks County.\u201d<\/p>\n About Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank<\/p>\n Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank\u00a0provides nutritious food to people facing hunger in Berks and Schuylkill counties.\u00a0Helping Harvest delivers food to over 350 partners in its service area through its Weekender Program, Maternal Health Program, Senior Food Box Program, School Pantries, Mobile Markets, Community Kitchen, and more.\u00a0As a Partner Food Bank of Feeding America,\u00a0Helping Harvest is\u00a0committed to putting donations to work where they matter most;\u00a096.4% of expenditures go directly to program services, meaning for every $1 raised, over 96 cents reach neighbors facing hunger.\u00a0Visit\u00a0HelpingHarvest.org<\/a>\u00a0to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank On Oct. 1,\u00a0Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank\u00a0held\u00a0its fourth\u00a0annual\u00a0Celebration of Community & Hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-305220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}