2007 Fact Sheet

• Our Mission is to provide emergency food to need people in the State College Area and to assist the network of food pantries in Centre County.
• A client may come to the Food Bank up to six times a year, with a referral from a social service agency or Community Safety Net member organization. After six visits, the client must be working with a case manager in another organization in order to continue to receive food assistance.
• A client receives a supply of groceries sufficient for approximately one week. The size of the food order corresponds to the number of people in the household. In addition to non-perishable foods, every grocery order includes fresh milk, eggs, bread, and frozen meat. Fresh produce is also provided.
• In 2007, we provided 11,178 bags of groceries to 2,358 people in 744 households. Approximately 42% were children under the age of 18 and about 8% were age 60 or older. Two hundred sixteen households were first-time users of our services. Our service area encompasses the entire State College Area School District and Upper Bald Eagle Valley. In 2007, 1% of our services were provided to households living outside of our service area. Due to budget constraints and increase number of households utilizing the Food Bank’s services more than the allotted six times per year, we will no longer be permitted to provide emergency service to people living outside the service area. However, we do provide food to the other Centre County food banks to assist them in serving their clients.
• Our regular hours for client service and for dropping off food donations are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Emergency food provided by our food bank is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through the Community Help Centre located at 139 S. Pugh Street, State College (237-5855). During the month of November and until Christmas, our hours are Monday through Friday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and 10 - 12 on Saturday.
• We opened in the fall of 1982 at St. Andrew’s Church in downtown State College. On January 22, 2007, we moved to a new location for a minimal annual rent fee. We maintain one off-site food storage area. In 1996, we became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, The Food Bank of the State College Area, Inc., which is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors.
• Our staff currently includes two full-time staff members, the Executive Director and the Manager of Operations, and a part-time Treasurer, as well as 50 or more volunteers who regularly help us serve our clients. Other groups volunteer in the evenings and on the weekends packing bags of groceries, sorting donations, helping with special projects. Volunteers logged in a total of 8,058 hours of service.
• We receive financial support from numerous sources including the Centre County United Way, the Emergency food and Shelter Program, CROP Walk, the Centre County Community Foundation, State College Area High School’s “Empty Bowls Project,” The Downtown State College Rotary Club, religious congregations, business and service organizations, various groups at Penn State, and many individual donors. We receive food from Federal Emergency Food Assistance Program and the State Food Purchase Program, and we obtain food from the South Central Food Bank (our Second Harvest Food Bank). Large amounts of food come to us through the Letter Carriers’ and the Scouting for Food drives, which are held annually, as well as from many other food drives sponsored by various groups and organizations in our community and at Penn State. Finally, donations of food and grocery gift cards are received regularly from local churches, grocery stores, and other businesses, as well as from individual donors. In 2007, more than 70-80% of the food we distributed was donated to us.
• To contact us, call 814-234-2310 or write P.O. Box 907, State College, PA 16804. Visit us at our new location at 276 West Hamilton Ave., State College (in the building between the Mobil service station and the Hamilton Shopping Plaza). For more information, see http://Foodbank.centreconnect.org