Central Pennsylvania Food Bank: Youth Programs Grant

Central Pennsylvania Food Bank: Youth Programs Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Central Pennsylvania Food Bank
Amount: Unspecified amount in in-kind support
Last Updated: July 21, 2025

Summary

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank's Youth Programs address child hunger, with initiatives like School Pantries, Kids Cafés, BackPack programs, and Summer Meals. These programs provide nutritious food to food-insecure children and families, ensuring they have access to healthy meals during school breaks and throughout the year. With over 1.2 million pounds of food distributed annually, these efforts support thousands of households, fostering both nutritional and educational development for children in central Pennsylvania.

Overview

One in seven central Pennsylvania children are at-risk of hunger. A child’s chance for a brighter tomorrow starts with getting enough healthy food to eat today. Through the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s youth programs we give our children and youth consistent access to enough nutritious food to excel. School Pantry School pantries alleviate child and adult hunger through the provision of food to children and their families at or in partnership with schools. In some areas, schools are the most accessible resource hub for community members and are the best location to operate a choice pantry. In others, a school pantry may look more like an expanded BackPack program that sends home meal kits for the entire family. Some school pantries serve high school students directly and discreetly, allowing teens to receive the help they may need without notice or stigma from their peers. The school pantry model can also be expanded to higher education, which has a significantly underserved food insecure population. Sites are on or near a school’s campus, have set distribution schedules, and offer ongoing food assistance services. School pantries may be student-access or adult-access choice pantries, or may offer a box model. Fresh Express Mobile Distributions may also take place at schools. Program objectives include: Providing nutritious food to food insecure children and families for preparation and consumption at their place of residence.Distributing food discretely in an easily accessible and safe environment. Altogether, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s partner educational pantries in elementary, secondary, and tertiary schools provide over 1.2 million pounds of food to about 3,400 households yearly. If you are interested in taking part in the School Pantry program: Contact the principal or school counselor at your child’s school to find out if the school participates in the program. If your school is not a part of the School Pantry program, direct your school principal or counselor to this website for more information. Eligibility standards are determined by each school pantry program partner. Kids Cafe Kids Cafe programs provide free meals, healthy snacks, and opportunities for educational and social development to low-income children at a variety of community locations such as schools, community centers, and public parks across central Pennsylvania. Kids Cafés can operate as part of day and afterschool enrichment programs during the school year, summer activity programs when school is out, or both. This free and prepared congregate feeding program traces its origins to Savannah, Georgia. In 1989, two young brothers were discovered one night in the kitchen of their housing project’s community center looking for food. In response to this glaring example of child hunger, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Coastal Georgia started the first Kids Cafe®. In 1993, Feeding America launched the national Kids Cafe  program. The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank sponsors or partners with more than 180 Kids Cafe® sites that serve nearly 550,000 meals to over 16,000 children every year. If you are interested in having your child take part in the Kids Cafe program: Contact the principal or school counselor at your school to see if the school or a nearby organization participates in the program. If your school or community organization is not a part of the Kids Cafe® program, direct your school principal, counselor or executive director to this website for more information. Kids Cafe sites can be located in any area where more than 50% of the children are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch. School-age youth up to the age of 18 are eligible to participate. BackPack The BackPack program is designed to meet the needs of elementary and middle school aged children who receive free or reduced-price school meals during times when school is closed, such as weekends and holidays. Through this program, children receive packages of child-friendly food to take home with them from school to ensure they do not go hungry over the break. The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank serves more than 10,000 children annually in partnership with over 100 BackPack agencies throughout central Pennsylvania. If you are interested in having your child take part in the BackPack program: Contact the principal or school counselor at your child’s school to find out if the school participates in the program. If your school is not a part of the BackPack program, direct your school principal or counselor to this website for more information. Eligibility is determined by each BackPack program partner. Summer Meals The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank knows learning doesn’t end when school lets out; neither does a child’s need for healthy, nutritious food. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) allows the Food Bank to partner with churches, community organizations and public parks to provide free, nutritious meals and snacks to children during the summer months. The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank serves more than 75,000 summer meals to children in our service territory and also provides assistance and technical support to over a dozen partner agencies that independently serve another 39,000 summer meals.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.