Reading, PA – To make a significant impact on Helping Harvest’s food assistance response to the COVID-19 crisis, The Giorgi Family Foundation recently granted Helping Harvest $127,500.
The funding amount was meant to cover Helping Harvest’s estimated emergency food and supply costs for a three-week period. This funding helped the food bank feed more than 40,000 people during that period of time. Many of these individuals are seeking food assistance for the very first time, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and its effect on the economy.
“This donation was made by The Giorgi Family Foundation* in order to support the truly mission-critical work of Helping Harvest during this time of crisis. The Giorgi Family Foundation is committed to the support of Human Services and is proud to partner with Helping Harvest,” stated Peter F. Giorgi, President, The Giorgi Family Foundation.
*The Giorgi Family Foundation is a charitable foundation and is not part of or affiliated with The Giorgi Companies, Inc. or its affiliated businesses including Giorgi Mushroom Company, Giorgio Foods, Inc. or Giorgio Fresh Co.
According to Jay Worrall, president of Helping Harvest, “The funding from The Giorgi Family Foundation was absolutely critical as it came so early in the crisis, at a time where we were very concerned how we would be able to financially support our needed community response. While much more funding will be needed to continue our response in the weeks and months ahead, we are so grateful to The Giorgi Family Foundation for putting us in a strong position to serve our community throughout this crisis.”
In response to the increased demand, Helping Harvest is now distributing well-over 300,000 pounds of food weekly. Typically, the organization averages 135,000 pounds distributed each week.
About Helping Harvest: Helping Harvest supplies food to the 320 charitable food programs that feed the hungry in Berks and Schuylkill counties, Pennsylvania. Programs our food bank supplies include food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, senior living facilities, after-school programs, and direct service programs, including our Mobile Markets. Annually, our distribution center supplies more than 7 million pounds of food which feeds more than 110,000 of our neighbors in need.