Williamsport, PA― The fourth annual Dr. Alexander Nesbitt Commitment to Caring Award was presented to The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Williamsport, on April 19, 2017 in a surprise ceremony following an End-of-Life Choices seminar at the Elder & Special Needs Resource Center in Williamsport. Dr. Nesbitt presented the award, established by Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak, and named in his honor. Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak also provided a cash donation to the recipient. The Dr. Alexander Nesbitt Commitment to Caring Award was established by the elder care law firm in 2014. According to Attorney Julieanne E. Steinbacher, the award recognizes an individual or a non-profit organization in the community that shows an extraordinary commitment to caring that improves the lives of others.
“Our Bold Goal is that by 2025, our collaborative network will provide access to enough nutritious food for everyone struggling with hunger in each of the 27 counties we serve. This means we will need to distribute 79M meals a year, up from the 36.3M meals we distributed in 2015”
— The Bold Goal 10 Year Plan, Central Pennsylvania Food Bank
The Central PA Food Bank has been exemplary in its commitment to caring about the nutritional needs of others. This award recognizes its visionary “Bold Goal” to feed those who are nutritionally vulnerable; its strategic expansion designed to improve the handling, storage, and distribution of the quantity and quality of food donations to the Food Bank; its innovative and far reaching scope of its programs designed to reach and feed those who are hungry; The Central Pennsylvania Food Banks excellent fiscal management; and finally, the Food Bank is recognized because it capitalizes on the value brought to its program with the inclusion and utilization of volunteers and in establishing collaborative partnerships with individuals and organizations that can further the accomplishment of its vision.
This year’s recipient is a non-profit food distribution program, serving 27 counties in Central Pennsylvania through two distribution centers located in Harrisburg and in Williamsport. The Food Bank began permanent operations in 1982 and moved to its current location in Harrisburg in 1994. The Williamsport branch was added in 2002. In 2012, the Food Bank’s Harrisburg branch underwent an expansion which tripled the facility’s storage capacity. The Food Bank’s Harrisburg facility is now roughly 75,000 ft. In 2016, the Williamsport branch expanded to almost 30,000 sq. ft. and transformed to a Healthy Food Hub. With an expanded and modern Healthy Food Hub in Williamsport, the Food Bank is able to annually distribute more and healthier food to over 109,000 food insecure people just in the northern central Pennsylvania region.
As the largest non-profit food distribution program in the region the Food Bank reduces hunger by distributing nutritious food in partnership with more than 800 program partners (food pantries, soup kitchens, low income child and senior care centers) in 27 counties. Donations come to the Food Bank from growers, retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, processors, brokers, specialty stores, food drives and food distribution centers. The staff of the food bank work carefully to engage local growers and producers of fresh food to provide high quality fresh options to the food bank. They also try to increases utilization of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by those who are eligible.