September 2, 2025 • 30 mins
“The new Executive Director of the Central PA Foodbank discusses serious challenges that this leading force in the fight against food insecurity in twenty-seven PA counties is facing.” www.centralpafoodbank.org
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Sylvia Moss and this is Insight, a presentation of
iHeartMedia where we really do care about our local communities
and all our listeners who live here. Yes, we do care,
but what's been truly powerful to me is how much you,
my wonderful listeners care. You know, a week after week
get tune in. We've tackled some of the most pressing
issues that are facing residents of Central PA. And my
(00:23):
mission has always been to connect you with the organizations
that are working really hard to address those issues, and
I hope that their dedications will inspire you to get
involved in whether by volunteering, donating, or simply sharing their stories.
And time after time you've shown up. You never left
me down. More importantly, you've never left members of your
(00:44):
local communities down. In fact, one of the most impactful
examples of your continued dedication to our local communities has
been the many, many years that you have so generously
supported the mission of a local organization that began its
work in a con verted movie theater in Stilton over
forty years ago. Do you believe that the Central Pennsylvania
(01:05):
Food Bank opens its stores in nineteen eighty two and
during their first year of operation, they distributed more than
seven hundred pounds of food to a network of one
hundred and forty agency partners. Today, wait till you hear this,
they now share tens of millions of pounds per year
through more than one thousand partner agencies and programs. For
(01:29):
over four decades, the Central Pennsylvania Food Banks faced a
whole lot of challenges, downturns in the economy, the COVID crisis,
shifting demographics, and they all did it while stepping up
to the plate to address hunger and food insecurity in
twenty seven counties throughout Pennsylvania. Those who are currently actually
one of them, who's currently at the helm of the
(01:49):
food bank, is dealing with challenges right now and it's
going to affect what we're going to talk about is
one hundred and forty thousand people in Pennsylvania shortly are
going to find them so elves what they called as
food insecure. I think I'm saying our food insecure with
us from the well.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Actually, she is.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
The new executor of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. Your
name is Shilah Oulright, all right, childie.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
She is incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
She is I mean, we were talking off Mike, I
was talking about her predecessors and this girl is going
to kick butt because she's got it in her heart.
Before we talk about anything else here, I want to
ask you tell us a little bit about your background.
Now I know you've gotten this isn't you're not How
would I say you're not an administrative person. You've done
a lot of work in this area. Talk to us
(02:39):
about your experience and we came from Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Thank you so much for having me, This is really
a great honor to be with you too.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I grew up in the Altuna area area, the daughter
of a proud Union railroader, as one does in the
Altuna area, and just knew kind of as I got
older that I wanted to do something that would impact
people in our in the community that I lived and
went to lovedon. Valley College was really the only school
(03:09):
I looked at and knew upon arriving on campus that
that was home for me and loved and Valley College
changed my life in all of the best ways. So,
after college, went to earn my master's in social work
and at the same time began volunteering at a local
food pantry in Palmyra, where I live.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
And the rest is sort of history.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I spent nine years volunteering there and then nine years
serving as the executive director of that food food Pantry,
and was intimately involved at the work of the in
the work of the food Bank along the way, and
served on the board of Directors for a year before
coming in as president and then later as CEO. So
it's been quite a journey. It's an honor and privilege
(03:53):
to be able to serve in this way every day.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
During COVID, I remember having this moment of like, I
just felt this immense amount of gratitude for the ability
to not have to stand on the sidelines wondering how
I could impact my local community and be helpful, but
that I could do real actionable things as people were
losing their jobs and needed food and just being a
(04:17):
part of what was going on within the local community.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
So I take this, you.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Know, this position and this vocation for me, you know,
very seriously, because it really is such a.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Calling for me.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And oh, I'll tell you, yeah, you're in the core
of the community. I mean, everybody loves the food bank,
and I'm sure you're going to take some royal But
I talked about food insecurity.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Can you define it in simple terms? What is it
for hungry? Period?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, it's kind of the best sort of proxy we
have for hunger and basically measured by whether or not
people have access to food that they want or.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
They need for their diet.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So yeah, basically that they don't have the money or
resources to be able to have food, and so we
measure that by whether or not people skip meals and
so yeah, basically, are you hungry?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Is connected to food and security.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, you're in twenty seven counties. What give me a
picture of what it looks like here in central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, so we see that about one in nine adults
and one and seven children face food in security within
our service territorium, and that's pretty true across the United
States in general. And one startling thing, you know, we
talk about we're in a hunger crisis right now. After
twenty twenty two and the child tax Credit went away
(05:40):
as well as the Snap emergency benefit for COVID went away,
we saw a really major uptick in usage across our
service territory and we sort of kind of drilling down
on the data and realized that over the last twenty
five years, the United States has not had a number
of food and secure individuals below ten percent. In good times,
(06:01):
we have had a ten percent or greater amount of
individuals who have struggled to put food.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
On their table.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
And so, you know, we talk about it a lot,
that we're in a hunger crisis, but it's often silent, right.
We don't know you know, who sitting next to us,
worshiping with us, in our kids, in classrooms with us.
You know, people who we see, you know, in public
or day to day or even in our workplaces who
(06:27):
may be struggling to put food on the table. And
as a basic human right, we take that work very
seriously and trying to one get the information out about
resources that individuals can find to help with our food needs,
but also to educate the public that this is this
is a diar need within our communities.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We know, what's something I wanted to ask you about.
I want to get clear and if you could address
this in basic terms. I've heard a lot from people
that are coming here, people that are out in the
streets that say, oh my god, what's going to happen.
We're going to lose. So many people are going to
lose their health. So many people are gonna I mean,
you're the number of people that you're facing when recent
legislation has been past, it's going to have an impact
(07:08):
on all of us.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Could you explain.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
How and talk to us about snap and how somebody
qualifies because I know there are a lot of people
out there that access the food from the Food Bank,
you know, the different areas your.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Partners around the state.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But they're working. Some of them are working a couple
of jobs. These are because I get so mad at
people for different issues. They say all they need is
a job. Oh guess what, they do have a job.
They have a couple of jobs. I know I threw
a lot in your left, but I know you can
handle it.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, it's teeing up a really good talking point that
we talk about a lot.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
So we have a.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Team of individuals within the Food Bank, our policy and
research team, and they have gone out and conducted right
around four thousand surveys of individuals families who utilize food
resources like food pantry, soup kitchens, military share programs, other
programs that we provide within the Central Pennsylvania Food bank,
And what we found is at a high level, sometimes
(08:08):
eighty percent of individuals who access those food resources are
either working, or they're disabled, or they're on Social Security.
And so what we know is just in general, an
individual who's working a full time job, you know, it
is possible that two people working a full time job
(08:29):
are making maybe less than fifty thousand dollars a year
working full time hours, and so you know, it does. Right.
We have this idea that it's just people who don't
want to get out and be productive members of society,
but what we find is that it's just low wages
that hold individuals back and also lack of benefits. So
(08:50):
you may find a job that you can work forty
hours a week, but you may not have access to
healthcare through your employer, or it may be untenable because
of the cost that you might have.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
To pay for it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So yeah, it's there are lots of factors kind of
added to it that that don't make it as easy
as well they're not working they should be. Yeah, so
it's a it's a it's definitely something that we see
on a day to day.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, what is snap that's is that the old food
food stamps. Yeah, okay, okay, and how do you qualify
for that? I mean there's some I know, it's like
an individual you have to make this mound if it's uh,
you know a different number of people in your family, right,
and you can find all that information on the on
your website, right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
We actually do have a Snap Outreach team.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So our Snap Outreach team helps individuals to qualify, to
find out if they would qualify, and then to do
the application for SNAP benefits through Compass, which is on
the through the Pennsylvania website, there's a website that you
can go and apply for benefits. So Snap Benefits, Yeah,
you have to go through an application process and understand
(09:54):
you know that even one penny over is one penny
over and that you wouldn't then qualify. So we do
direct people there because we kind of see this as
a two prong process. For every meal we deliver in
the Charitable Food NETWORKSNAP provides nine, so the ratio of
meals is not even close to the same. So, as
(10:17):
you might imagine with the changes with the passage of
the One Big Beautiful Bill, we are facing some really
big concerns about how the states are going to make
up for what they have been asked to do.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
And what's the same.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Thing with nursing homes. Yeah, so it's the same situation
with medicaid. Oh my goodness, what are you going to do?
Because people a lot of people have lost their jobs too.
In the recent months, have you seen an increase in
the number of people using the food bank?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So well, we ran our numbers for a last year.
We saw a six percent increase of need. So we
serve about five hundred and sixty three thousand individuals within
our service territory every month, so yeah, we have seen
a change. So the One Big Beautiful Bill just to
kind of to kind of explain that from the SNAP
(11:03):
benefit side, the states will be responsible for paying for
some administrative cost in the next fiscal year, So the
state of Pennsylvania based on air rates and some other things, well,
not in.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
This particular iteration.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
So the first kind of pass is that the state
will have to make up one hundred and twenty five
million dollars to help keep SNAP fully funded where it
is currently in the next fiscal year. The following year,
the state will be responsible for an additional five hundred
and fifty million dollars to keep SNAP funded where it is.
(11:36):
So a total of seven hundred and seventy five million
dollars essentially needs to be raised in order to keep
SNAP where it is. So you know, the nine to
one meal ratio, the loss of this funding and whether
or not the state can make that up, we're going
to have to get really.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Scrappy and really creative.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
To do that. That means that we may see an
increased need of the Charitable Food Network, and that I
think is probably the scariest part for us. We're going
to rise to the challenge. We're going to do what
we can. We're going to try our hardest, but we
know that you know this last year we distributed seventy
five million pounds of food. That's a lot of food,
(12:16):
and to have to continue to ramp that that requires
just a lot of work, you know, internally and externally.
So always appreciate these opportunities to talk about why the
food bank is so important to our local our local
communities because it really is making a difference.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Well, I know a lot of this that you partner
with people, and we were talking earlier about like Dave
Smantha and Pennsylvania Dairyman's Association. You're responsible for getting fresh
milk to so many children in Pennsylvania. You have awesome partnerships,
but do you are you looking for more?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We're always happy to partner with in organizations, businesses, food manufacturers,
food processors, that sort of thing to be able to
get food through our doors. You know. Yeah, we don't
want any stone unturned because there's value in having these
partnerships and the robustness of the system that can really
(13:12):
prop up people people who have needs. So absolutely, we're
always happy to explore our new partnerships and see how
we can work together.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You have you go up as far as Williams. You
have two hubs with certain number of counties in each one. Right, Okay,
could you explain, Like, if you get a big shipment
of food that you have to distribute, they go out
to two hubs, big trucks on the road, and then
they're distributed places like what would you call them?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Pantries? Like you rent everything? Tell us how that works.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, So I'm happy to also report that we have
a third healthy food hub that we open the spring.
We're in Holidaysburg and Blair County. So actually it's kind
of a full circle moment for me. It's across the
street from where my dad was a railroader, so it's
kind of funny. Yeah, it's sort of sort of a
full circle moment. But yeah, so we have three facilities,
(14:08):
Harrisburg being our largest facility, and then Williamsport is about
half that size, and then our holidays for location is
much smaller and is you know, just a hub for
more of that the alligating Mountain region there. So yeah,
when we get a donation and we have a great
system where we upload that information into our system and
(14:31):
our partner agencies have the ability to go into an
ordering system and see what we have product we have available,
and we use a variety of sort of.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
State and federal.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Kinds of things like tea FAP, which is the Emergency
Food Assistance Program. We will get some commodities through there
that we can offer to our partner agencies who participate
with TEFAP for free, and then we have some other
dollars from the state.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Well do you work with Beating America to Yeah, it's
a big ye number of years.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, we are Feeding America partner affiliate of Feeding America.
So yeah, so we bring all of that in and
then partner agencies can go in and then we have
a pretty big network of trucks that we're able to
then deliver the food. So that's kind of our advantage
is that we have the ability to deliver food to
our partner agencies instead of having them come to our
(15:23):
facility to.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Pick those up.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Someone listening to this, they can't just go overun your
posit to the food bank and say, hey, I need food.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
There's a process. Tell us how that works.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Sure, So as a food bank, we don't do direct
service providing, so we don't do we don't have a
place where people can come and get food. Now, I
will say, because food pantry and food bank are you know,
kind of synonymous, we do different functions. People may put
into their you know, their search engine food bank near me,
(15:54):
and then it populates to the food bank. So if
someone shows up on our doorstep and says they need food,
we serve them one hundred percent. So we serve and
then we refer them to a partner agency who would
be close to them in their neighborhood, who they could
go to for food assistants.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Moving forward, and like you said, all that stubs online,
it is, and what's your website.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Addressed Central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
I'm sorry, it's Central Pafoodbank dot org.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Want to make sure we tell you that a couple
of times so then I'm sorry, I interrupted, No, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So then we have a partner network as you As
you mentioned eleven and thirty partner agencies who do a
variety of services in a variety of ways, and about
six hundred of them are traditional pantries where people can
go in. Some of them are what we consider choice pantries.
They can go in and shop for the items that
they want. Some of them are you sign up to
(16:46):
go and pick up Maybe it's a drive through and
you get a box or a bag of food, so
you're able to access food resources within within your local community.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's wonderful. We know, I remember, and it's not difficult
to remember. You're in here and make sure you guys
get in here a couple of times a year. You
have specific programs like for veterans, for seniors, that type
of thing.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Can you talk a little bit about each one of those?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Absolutely, So we have a program that it's kind of
one of our I know Joe was really instrumental in
starting this and one of the first. He really is
he's really great and one of the first in the
nation Military Share program that helps veterans, widow widowers of veterans,
(17:30):
and then also active and reservist military personnel. And that's
in what we found is people who are military or
who are former military or tied to the military just
have a hard time with seeking assistance. Oh yeah, so
we wanted to be in places they were already meeting
or being So those programs are operated out of the
(17:52):
FW's am Vets legions and they are local organizations who
sort of spawn them and help the veterans and active
military personnel to get some food provisions every month, so
they're once a month programs. And again there are like
we call them like point in time services where we
deliver the food and then it's given out that same
(18:14):
day to help our local bets and military personnel. We
also have a senior program, a Senior Box program, one
of them it's called CSFP. CSFP is through the federal
government through USDA, but then we also have our own
program for individuals who don't qualify for CSFP because they
(18:35):
make a little too much money. We sorted our own
program called Elder Share, and that program parodies CSFP, but
we pay for that so you can make a little
bit more but still qualify for Elder Share programming. And
we do about sixty six hundred boxes maybe a little
bit less now of seniors within our service territory. And
(18:57):
then we have some Elder Share boxes as well. We
have some health Share things that we do with healthcare
providers to get food into hands of patients who excuse me,
may have some dietary restrictions or needs who just may
need a jumpstart and getting their nutritional needs met. We
have some children's programming. Yeah, we kind of covered.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Covered yeh, that's awesome. Well, you know what, I don't
think people realize. They they say, yes, somebody' sound hungry,
but kids alone. You work for a while in the
mental health field, so you're really familiar with what this does.
Tell our listeners, the impact if you don't get their food,
Like kids go to school, don't eat all day, kids
(19:38):
go to school without breakfast.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
How does it impact then?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, I in so many ways I think about my
own kids and when they're hungry, nobody wants to be
around them, right, So and some of it too is
like I remember when I have a fourth grader and
he would kind of grumpy and I'm like, either you're
tired of your so which is it? Right, and just
thinking about what that does to our to our our
(20:05):
mental health, and just the idea that children who aren't
fed can't learn, they can't be active in the same
ways our brains. You know, that's all you think about, right,
Like you know, we grew up in diet culture of
like the eighties. Right, when you like go on a diet,
what do you think about food?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Right, I'm back in the eighteen eighties, You're right.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
But I think about that a lot, right, like that
when you go on a diet, like that was the
thing of like the nineties, right as I was coming
of age, Like you try to restrict food, and all
you think about is food, and so you know, I
think about that as it translates to people who don't
have access to it.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
And what we know.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Is that children don't often skip meals. Adults in homes
skip meals, and so you know, it's about one percent
of children who are skipping meals, but it's a much
greater percentage of adults because you know you can picture
this right like, I don't have enough food to feed
me and my children. I'm going to elect to feed
(21:04):
my kids and then eat whatever's left. And that story
is happening within our very own communities. Every municipality, in
every part of every part of this country has people
who are food insecure, and in a country where we
have a lot, we should be doing better.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Well, I could talk to you for a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We're run out of time, but there's cover of real
important things I want to get to. You have something
going on on September twenty third called town Talk.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
It's a meeting. What is that about? And who can
take part in it?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, we're so we're doing a kind of an open forum.
We'd love to have any individuals who are interested in
learning more about what we do and sort of the
advocacy around that and what's sort of on the horizon
and how we do put all of this together to
create I always talk about this as a lot of
inputs to create the output of the charitable food system,
and so yeah, we're inviting community members to take part
(21:56):
in that. It's just kind of a town hall to
address some of the urgent needs of our organization and
of the terrible food network in general.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
You know, this is something that I wanted to get
to absolutely positively donations. You don't have the drives anymore,
but if somebody wants to make a monetary donation absolutely positively,
how can they do that?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, they can do that by going to our website,
Central Pafoodbank dot org. They can also participate. We're coming
up on the Extra give I know is a.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Popular I love that.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, yeah, thro.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Through here and then we participate in the Give Local
York and some other giftees.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
But there are lots of opportunities.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Always happy to have individuals who are interested in learning
more about the food Bank call and schedule a tour.
We'd love to have you come out and learn more
about what we do and how we do it.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know what, talk about accountability. You go on that
website and see what every almost every single penny you spent.
And I love that because everybody's always saying we'll word
of the money go. Well, let me tell you something
dealing with nonprofits and organizations like this for only it's
thirty years and the people have heard me say this before.
There are yeah, their grants out there. But you got
(23:09):
a whole lot of people going after the same money
and you never know who's going to get it. But
for things like staff and different things you need, that's
money you have to raise on your own. So do
you have anything like that coming up?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
So we do a big holiday appeal. Holiday times are
a really great time for us to raise money. And
you're right, you know, it takes money to keep the
lights on and the droser is working and all of
those things. And we're just so thankful to live in
an area where people really come. They show up for
us in so many ways. Right, We have so many
great volunteers and just are able to do so much
(23:47):
because of the people who support us throughout the years.
So deep appreciation for the ways that our community continues
to hold us up and the mission of reducing hunger
within our communities.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And you can start that whole up at an early age,
because I've been preaching this for years. You want to
have kids that are gonna, oh, you know somebody who's
fifty years old. You want your kids to feel like
taking care every when they get You gotta create those kids.
You got to start when they're little, get them involved
in donating things and giving their time volunteering because I've
(24:19):
seen this in my own family by taking kids in
the family. Oh, I don't want to go, I don't
want to do this, but guess what when they get there,
they can hardly wait to get back because what it
does for kids self esteem the boop bang. You really
don't have any prerequists for being for volunteering. You can
(24:40):
start as early as what fourteen years old to volunteer.
That's terrific.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, it's really great.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I have a.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Perfect age together.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I did.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I made sure that my older son continue to volunteer
at our local pantry for the summer. And and you know,
you're right. The reward that individuals get out of being
among the community and making a difference with in the community,
and and and you know all ages really benefit from that.
And the community that's that's that you find in those
settings is really really magical.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So, yeah, of all the things that are going on,
what do you think is going to be the most
challenging for you.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I think the concern is just, yeah, how much more
loss there will be within the network in terms of
food and pure and ramming.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, but and you're more people coming in that need it.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And there's a potential, yeah, that we'll see more individuals
and so yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Well, can you lobby your congress person?
Speaker 1 (25:38):
We do, We do have a great government relations team
who does go out, you know and talk to individuals,
and we do get in front of lawmakers and in
front of people who have who have power to make
changes to that. But it's also it takes you know,
the community to understand, you know, that we are in
(25:58):
a hunger, hunger crisis and what that means for your neighbors.
And again, people you worship with or you work with,
and you know there are people who you interact with
every day who don't know where their next meal is
coming from.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
And attention of people.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's a hard concept though, right, Yeah, And people are embarrassed,
they don't want to let you know they don't have
any family.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Listen and as I've said a million times on this show,
things aren't the way you think they are.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Take five minutes to.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Educate yourself and Center Pennsylvania Food Bank can educate you
in so many ways about the seriousness of hunger in
our area and what we can do, how we can
prevent it. And there's so many I would say, like,
I'm thinking like tentacles or fingers out there that you
can jump on to support the food bank. Right, I
got a question for you. If you weren't doing this,
(26:45):
what would you be doing. I usually ask the guys
that and they say, oh, I'll be playing professional baseball.
Yeah right, right right, They all say that.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, I don't know, that's a really good question. I
have always wanted to do something in service industry, and
I wasn't on a planed till I was eighteen, but
I was as a child I thought I wanted to
be a flight attendant. So maybe that I don't know,
that's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
No, you found it right, you found the right And
something else I was noticing. You have a you have
an awesome board.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Some of them have their own nonprofits, you know, Gary
Gilliam and different people like that, but it's your executive board.
You got a couple of gals now, right, Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Yeah, so on the executive team.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Yeah, we have a good mix of guys and girls.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
So yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
It's really great, a really great team.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I'm again so honored to do the work that I'm
doing and behind so many people who are just making
it happen every day.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
And they're lucky to have you. I can guarantee you
this nobody that works at the food bank. I mean
they get the top of the crop. They don't get
just people that are going to do a job. This
is a what's the word, it's a.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Calling maybe for you.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Sure, And even like Joe, Joe's retiring, Joe author is
he retiring.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
He will be with us in a development capacity for
the next three years. So I'm excited to have him around.
The succession has been just a great time and he's
been just so you know, Joe is someone just so
full of integrity and so kind and thoughtful. And you know,
(28:18):
I keep telling people I'm not just saying that because
he's like paid me to say that, but.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
I really really mean that.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Trust I've known Joe for one hundred years, so that's
how he is. Yeah, that's exactly how we need people
like that. I wanted to ask you. I forgot what
else said is going to ask you about? Okay, So
if you want to donate, what's it? Give us the
website again and a telephone number if you think you
need services. If as far as food if you know
(28:45):
someone else you can referm to, if you want to
learn about the food bank, if you want to donate,
if you want to get a class together and donate,
or even businesses can get together and especially the big give.
Trust me, I know the guy who's from my home town,
Joe Bressey, that you started.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
That, Oh yeah yeah, and he's all.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You guys are just totally amazing to me because you're
not certainly not in anybody does things that benefit the community.
Trust me, They're not in it for the money.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
It's it's certainly not the first driver. That's for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's all about you.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
And I want to also remind our wonderful listeners that
sit not really reminded me of thank them, Thank them
so much. And as I said again, the website is
Central Pafoodbank dot org. My guest has been the new
executive director, Shilah williams Ulrich. Thank you Sweety for coming
in and as always, remember you can catch Insight every
Sunday on one of our ten iheartstations or anytime on
(29:41):
your favorite podcast app. I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been Insight.
Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
See you next week.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Sylvia Moss and this is Insight, a presentation of
iHeartMedia where we really do care about our local communities
and all our listeners who live here. Yes, we do care,
but what's been truly powerful to me is how much you,
my wonderful listeners care. You know, a week after week
get tune in. We've tackled some of the most pressing
issues that are facing residents of Central PA. And my
(00:23):
mission has always been to connect you with the organizations
that are working really hard to address those issues, and
I hope that their dedications will inspire you to get
involved in whether by volunteering, donating, or simply sharing their stories.
And time after time you've shown up. You never left
me down. More importantly, you've never left members of your
(00:44):
local communities down. In fact, one of the most impactful
examples of your continued dedication to our local communities has
been the many, many years that you have so generously
supported the mission of a local organization that began its
work in a con verted movie theater in Stilton over
forty years ago. Do you believe that the Central Pennsylvania
(01:05):
Food Bank opens its stores in nineteen eighty two and
during their first year of operation, they distributed more than
seven hundred pounds of food to a network of one
hundred and forty agency partners. Today, wait till you hear this,
they now share tens of millions of pounds per year
through more than one thousand partner agencies and programs. For
(01:29):
over four decades, the Central Pennsylvania Food Banks faced a
whole lot of challenges, downturns in the economy, the COVID crisis,
shifting demographics, and they all did it while stepping up
to the plate to address hunger and food insecurity in
twenty seven counties throughout Pennsylvania. Those who are currently actually
one of them, who's currently at the helm of the
(01:49):
food bank, is dealing with challenges right now and it's
going to affect what we're going to talk about is
one hundred and forty thousand people in Pennsylvania shortly are
going to find them so elves what they called as
food insecure. I think I'm saying our food insecure with
us from the well.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Actually, she is.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
The new executor of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. Your
name is Shilah Oulright, all right, childie.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
She is incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
She is I mean, we were talking off Mike, I
was talking about her predecessors and this girl is going
to kick butt because she's got it in her heart.
Before we talk about anything else here, I want to
ask you tell us a little bit about your background.
Now I know you've gotten this isn't you're not How
would I say you're not an administrative person. You've done
a lot of work in this area. Talk to us
(02:39):
about your experience and we came from Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Thank you so much for having me, This is really
a great honor to be with you too.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I grew up in the Altuna area area, the daughter
of a proud Union railroader, as one does in the
Altuna area, and just knew kind of as I got
older that I wanted to do something that would impact
people in our in the community that I lived and
went to lovedon. Valley College was really the only school
(03:09):
I looked at and knew upon arriving on campus that
that was home for me and loved and Valley College
changed my life in all of the best ways. So,
after college, went to earn my master's in social work
and at the same time began volunteering at a local
food pantry in Palmyra, where I live.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
And the rest is sort of history.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I spent nine years volunteering there and then nine years
serving as the executive director of that food food Pantry,
and was intimately involved at the work of the in
the work of the food Bank along the way, and
served on the board of Directors for a year before
coming in as president and then later as CEO. So
it's been quite a journey. It's an honor and privilege
(03:53):
to be able to serve in this way every day.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
During COVID, I remember having this moment of like, I
just felt this immense amount of gratitude for the ability
to not have to stand on the sidelines wondering how
I could impact my local community and be helpful, but
that I could do real actionable things as people were
losing their jobs and needed food and just being a
(04:17):
part of what was going on within the local community.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
So I take this, you.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Know, this position and this vocation for me, you know,
very seriously, because it really is such a.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Calling for me.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And oh, I'll tell you, yeah, you're in the core
of the community. I mean, everybody loves the food bank,
and I'm sure you're going to take some royal But
I talked about food insecurity.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Can you define it in simple terms? What is it
for hungry? Period?
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, it's kind of the best sort of proxy we
have for hunger and basically measured by whether or not
people have access to food that they want or.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
They need for their diet.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So yeah, basically that they don't have the money or
resources to be able to have food, and so we
measure that by whether or not people skip meals and
so yeah, basically, are you hungry?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Is connected to food and security.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, you're in twenty seven counties. What give me a
picture of what it looks like here in central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, so we see that about one in nine adults
and one and seven children face food in security within
our service territorium, and that's pretty true across the United
States in general. And one startling thing, you know, we
talk about we're in a hunger crisis right now. After
twenty twenty two and the child tax Credit went away
(05:40):
as well as the Snap emergency benefit for COVID went away,
we saw a really major uptick in usage across our
service territory and we sort of kind of drilling down
on the data and realized that over the last twenty
five years, the United States has not had a number
of food and secure individuals below ten percent. In good times,
(06:01):
we have had a ten percent or greater amount of
individuals who have struggled to put food.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
On their table.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
And so, you know, we talk about it a lot,
that we're in a hunger crisis, but it's often silent, right.
We don't know you know, who sitting next to us,
worshiping with us, in our kids, in classrooms with us.
You know, people who we see, you know, in public
or day to day or even in our workplaces who
(06:27):
may be struggling to put food on the table. And
as a basic human right, we take that work very
seriously and trying to one get the information out about
resources that individuals can find to help with our food needs,
but also to educate the public that this is this
is a diar need within our communities.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We know, what's something I wanted to ask you about.
I want to get clear and if you could address
this in basic terms. I've heard a lot from people
that are coming here, people that are out in the
streets that say, oh my god, what's going to happen.
We're going to lose. So many people are going to
lose their health. So many people are gonna I mean,
you're the number of people that you're facing when recent
legislation has been past, it's going to have an impact
(07:08):
on all of us.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Could you explain.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
How and talk to us about snap and how somebody
qualifies because I know there are a lot of people
out there that access the food from the Food Bank,
you know, the different areas your.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Partners around the state.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But they're working. Some of them are working a couple
of jobs. These are because I get so mad at
people for different issues. They say all they need is
a job. Oh guess what, they do have a job.
They have a couple of jobs. I know I threw
a lot in your left, but I know you can
handle it.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, it's teeing up a really good talking point that
we talk about a lot.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
So we have a.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Team of individuals within the Food Bank, our policy and
research team, and they have gone out and conducted right
around four thousand surveys of individuals families who utilize food
resources like food pantry, soup kitchens, military share programs, other
programs that we provide within the Central Pennsylvania Food bank,
And what we found is at a high level, sometimes
(08:08):
eighty percent of individuals who access those food resources are
either working, or they're disabled, or they're on Social Security.
And so what we know is just in general, an
individual who's working a full time job, you know, it
is possible that two people working a full time job
(08:29):
are making maybe less than fifty thousand dollars a year
working full time hours, and so you know, it does. Right.
We have this idea that it's just people who don't
want to get out and be productive members of society,
but what we find is that it's just low wages
that hold individuals back and also lack of benefits. So
(08:50):
you may find a job that you can work forty
hours a week, but you may not have access to
healthcare through your employer, or it may be untenable because
of the cost that you might have.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
To pay for it.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So yeah, it's there are lots of factors kind of
added to it that that don't make it as easy
as well they're not working they should be. Yeah, so
it's a it's a it's definitely something that we see
on a day to day.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, what is snap that's is that the old food
food stamps. Yeah, okay, okay, and how do you qualify
for that? I mean there's some I know, it's like
an individual you have to make this mound if it's uh,
you know a different number of people in your family, right,
and you can find all that information on the on
your website, right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
We actually do have a Snap Outreach team.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So our Snap Outreach team helps individuals to qualify, to
find out if they would qualify, and then to do
the application for SNAP benefits through Compass, which is on
the through the Pennsylvania website, there's a website that you
can go and apply for benefits. So Snap Benefits, Yeah,
you have to go through an application process and understand
(09:54):
you know that even one penny over is one penny
over and that you wouldn't then qualify. So we do
direct people there because we kind of see this as
a two prong process. For every meal we deliver in
the Charitable Food NETWORKSNAP provides nine, so the ratio of
meals is not even close to the same. So, as
(10:17):
you might imagine with the changes with the passage of
the One Big Beautiful Bill, we are facing some really
big concerns about how the states are going to make
up for what they have been asked to do.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
And what's the same.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Thing with nursing homes. Yeah, so it's the same situation
with medicaid. Oh my goodness, what are you going to do?
Because people a lot of people have lost their jobs too.
In the recent months, have you seen an increase in
the number of people using the food bank?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So well, we ran our numbers for a last year.
We saw a six percent increase of need. So we
serve about five hundred and sixty three thousand individuals within
our service territory every month, so yeah, we have seen
a change. So the One Big Beautiful Bill just to
kind of to kind of explain that from the SNAP
(11:03):
benefit side, the states will be responsible for paying for
some administrative cost in the next fiscal year, So the
state of Pennsylvania based on air rates and some other things, well,
not in.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
This particular iteration.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
So the first kind of pass is that the state
will have to make up one hundred and twenty five
million dollars to help keep SNAP fully funded where it
is currently in the next fiscal year. The following year,
the state will be responsible for an additional five hundred
and fifty million dollars to keep SNAP funded where it is.
(11:36):
So a total of seven hundred and seventy five million
dollars essentially needs to be raised in order to keep
SNAP where it is. So you know, the nine to
one meal ratio, the loss of this funding and whether
or not the state can make that up, we're going
to have to get really.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Scrappy and really creative.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
To do that. That means that we may see an
increased need of the Charitable Food Network, and that I
think is probably the scariest part for us. We're going
to rise to the challenge. We're going to do what
we can. We're going to try our hardest, but we
know that you know this last year we distributed seventy
five million pounds of food. That's a lot of food,
(12:16):
and to have to continue to ramp that that requires
just a lot of work, you know, internally and externally.
So always appreciate these opportunities to talk about why the
food bank is so important to our local our local
communities because it really is making a difference.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Well, I know a lot of this that you partner
with people, and we were talking earlier about like Dave
Smantha and Pennsylvania Dairyman's Association. You're responsible for getting fresh
milk to so many children in Pennsylvania. You have awesome partnerships,
but do you are you looking for more?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
We're always happy to partner with in organizations, businesses, food manufacturers,
food processors, that sort of thing to be able to
get food through our doors. You know. Yeah, we don't
want any stone unturned because there's value in having these
partnerships and the robustness of the system that can really
(13:12):
prop up people people who have needs. So absolutely, we're
always happy to explore our new partnerships and see how
we can work together.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You have you go up as far as Williams. You
have two hubs with certain number of counties in each one. Right, Okay,
could you explain, Like, if you get a big shipment
of food that you have to distribute, they go out
to two hubs, big trucks on the road, and then
they're distributed places like what would you call them?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Pantries? Like you rent everything? Tell us how that works.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, So I'm happy to also report that we have
a third healthy food hub that we open the spring.
We're in Holidaysburg and Blair County. So actually it's kind
of a full circle moment for me. It's across the
street from where my dad was a railroader, so it's
kind of funny. Yeah, it's sort of sort of a
full circle moment. But yeah, so we have three facilities,
(14:08):
Harrisburg being our largest facility, and then Williamsport is about
half that size, and then our holidays for location is
much smaller and is you know, just a hub for
more of that the alligating Mountain region there. So yeah,
when we get a donation and we have a great
system where we upload that information into our system and
(14:31):
our partner agencies have the ability to go into an
ordering system and see what we have product we have available,
and we use a variety of sort of.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
State and federal.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Kinds of things like tea FAP, which is the Emergency
Food Assistance Program. We will get some commodities through there
that we can offer to our partner agencies who participate
with TEFAP for free, and then we have some other
dollars from the state.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Well do you work with Beating America to Yeah, it's
a big ye number of years.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, we are Feeding America partner affiliate of Feeding America.
So yeah, so we bring all of that in and
then partner agencies can go in and then we have
a pretty big network of trucks that we're able to
then deliver the food. So that's kind of our advantage
is that we have the ability to deliver food to
our partner agencies instead of having them come to our
(15:23):
facility to.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Pick those up.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Someone listening to this, they can't just go overun your
posit to the food bank and say, hey, I need food.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
There's a process. Tell us how that works.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Sure, So as a food bank, we don't do direct
service providing, so we don't do we don't have a
place where people can come and get food. Now, I
will say, because food pantry and food bank are you know,
kind of synonymous, we do different functions. People may put
into their you know, their search engine food bank near me,
(15:54):
and then it populates to the food bank. So if
someone shows up on our doorstep and says they need food,
we serve them one hundred percent. So we serve and
then we refer them to a partner agency who would
be close to them in their neighborhood, who they could
go to for food assistants.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Moving forward, and like you said, all that stubs online,
it is, and what's your website.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Addressed Central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
I'm sorry, it's Central Pafoodbank dot org.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Want to make sure we tell you that a couple
of times so then I'm sorry, I interrupted, No, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So then we have a partner network as you As
you mentioned eleven and thirty partner agencies who do a
variety of services in a variety of ways, and about
six hundred of them are traditional pantries where people can
go in. Some of them are what we consider choice pantries.
They can go in and shop for the items that
they want. Some of them are you sign up to
(16:46):
go and pick up Maybe it's a drive through and
you get a box or a bag of food, so
you're able to access food resources within within your local community.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's wonderful. We know, I remember, and it's not difficult
to remember. You're in here and make sure you guys
get in here a couple of times a year. You
have specific programs like for veterans, for seniors, that type
of thing.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Can you talk a little bit about each one of those?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Absolutely, So we have a program that it's kind of
one of our I know Joe was really instrumental in
starting this and one of the first. He really is
he's really great and one of the first in the
nation Military Share program that helps veterans, widow widowers of veterans,
(17:30):
and then also active and reservist military personnel. And that's
in what we found is people who are military or
who are former military or tied to the military just
have a hard time with seeking assistance. Oh yeah, so
we wanted to be in places they were already meeting
or being So those programs are operated out of the
(17:52):
FW's am Vets legions and they are local organizations who
sort of spawn them and help the veterans and active
military personnel to get some food provisions every month, so
they're once a month programs. And again there are like
we call them like point in time services where we
deliver the food and then it's given out that same
(18:14):
day to help our local bets and military personnel. We
also have a senior program, a Senior Box program, one
of them it's called CSFP. CSFP is through the federal
government through USDA, but then we also have our own
program for individuals who don't qualify for CSFP because they
(18:35):
make a little too much money. We sorted our own
program called Elder Share, and that program parodies CSFP, but
we pay for that so you can make a little
bit more but still qualify for Elder Share programming. And
we do about sixty six hundred boxes maybe a little
bit less now of seniors within our service territory. And
(18:57):
then we have some Elder Share boxes as well. We
have some health Share things that we do with healthcare
providers to get food into hands of patients who excuse me,
may have some dietary restrictions or needs who just may
need a jumpstart and getting their nutritional needs met. We
have some children's programming. Yeah, we kind of covered.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Covered yeh, that's awesome. Well, you know what, I don't
think people realize. They they say, yes, somebody' sound hungry,
but kids alone. You work for a while in the
mental health field, so you're really familiar with what this does.
Tell our listeners, the impact if you don't get their food,
Like kids go to school, don't eat all day, kids
(19:38):
go to school without breakfast.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
How does it impact then?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, I in so many ways I think about my
own kids and when they're hungry, nobody wants to be
around them, right, So and some of it too is
like I remember when I have a fourth grader and
he would kind of grumpy and I'm like, either you're
tired of your so which is it? Right, and just
thinking about what that does to our to our our
(20:05):
mental health, and just the idea that children who aren't
fed can't learn, they can't be active in the same
ways our brains. You know, that's all you think about, right,
Like you know, we grew up in diet culture of
like the eighties. Right, when you like go on a diet,
what do you think about food?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Right, I'm back in the eighteen eighties, You're right.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
But I think about that a lot, right, like that
when you go on a diet, like that was the
thing of like the nineties, right as I was coming
of age, Like you try to restrict food, and all
you think about is food, and so you know, I
think about that as it translates to people who don't
have access to it.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
And what we know.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Is that children don't often skip meals. Adults in homes
skip meals, and so you know, it's about one percent
of children who are skipping meals, but it's a much
greater percentage of adults because you know you can picture
this right like, I don't have enough food to feed
me and my children. I'm going to elect to feed
(21:04):
my kids and then eat whatever's left. And that story
is happening within our very own communities. Every municipality, in
every part of every part of this country has people
who are food insecure, and in a country where we
have a lot, we should be doing better.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Well, I could talk to you for a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We're run out of time, but there's cover of real
important things I want to get to. You have something
going on on September twenty third called town Talk.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
It's a meeting. What is that about? And who can
take part in it?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, we're so we're doing a kind of an open forum.
We'd love to have any individuals who are interested in
learning more about what we do and sort of the
advocacy around that and what's sort of on the horizon
and how we do put all of this together to
create I always talk about this as a lot of
inputs to create the output of the charitable food system,
and so yeah, we're inviting community members to take part
(21:56):
in that. It's just kind of a town hall to
address some of the urgent needs of our organization and
of the terrible food network in general.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
You know, this is something that I wanted to get
to absolutely positively donations. You don't have the drives anymore,
but if somebody wants to make a monetary donation absolutely positively,
how can they do that?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, they can do that by going to our website,
Central Pafoodbank dot org. They can also participate. We're coming
up on the Extra give I know is a.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Popular I love that.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, yeah, thro.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Through here and then we participate in the Give Local
York and some other giftees.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
But there are lots of opportunities.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Always happy to have individuals who are interested in learning
more about the food Bank call and schedule a tour.
We'd love to have you come out and learn more
about what we do and how we do it.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know what, talk about accountability. You go on that
website and see what every almost every single penny you spent.
And I love that because everybody's always saying we'll word
of the money go. Well, let me tell you something
dealing with nonprofits and organizations like this for only it's
thirty years and the people have heard me say this before.
There are yeah, their grants out there. But you got
(23:09):
a whole lot of people going after the same money
and you never know who's going to get it. But
for things like staff and different things you need, that's
money you have to raise on your own. So do
you have anything like that coming up?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
So we do a big holiday appeal. Holiday times are
a really great time for us to raise money. And
you're right, you know, it takes money to keep the
lights on and the droser is working and all of
those things. And we're just so thankful to live in
an area where people really come. They show up for
us in so many ways. Right, We have so many
great volunteers and just are able to do so much
(23:47):
because of the people who support us throughout the years.
So deep appreciation for the ways that our community continues
to hold us up and the mission of reducing hunger
within our communities.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And you can start that whole up at an early age,
because I've been preaching this for years. You want to
have kids that are gonna, oh, you know somebody who's
fifty years old. You want your kids to feel like
taking care every when they get You gotta create those kids.
You got to start when they're little, get them involved
in donating things and giving their time volunteering because I've
(24:19):
seen this in my own family by taking kids in
the family. Oh, I don't want to go, I don't
want to do this, but guess what when they get there,
they can hardly wait to get back because what it
does for kids self esteem the boop bang. You really
don't have any prerequists for being for volunteering. You can
(24:40):
start as early as what fourteen years old to volunteer.
That's terrific.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, it's really great.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I have a.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Perfect age together.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I did.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I made sure that my older son continue to volunteer
at our local pantry for the summer. And and you know,
you're right. The reward that individuals get out of being
among the community and making a difference with in the community,
and and and you know all ages really benefit from that.
And the community that's that's that you find in those
settings is really really magical.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So, yeah, of all the things that are going on,
what do you think is going to be the most
challenging for you.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I think the concern is just, yeah, how much more
loss there will be within the network in terms of
food and pure and ramming.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, but and you're more people coming in that need it.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And there's a potential, yeah, that we'll see more individuals
and so yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Well, can you lobby your congress person?
Speaker 1 (25:38):
We do, We do have a great government relations team
who does go out, you know and talk to individuals,
and we do get in front of lawmakers and in
front of people who have who have power to make
changes to that. But it's also it takes you know,
the community to understand, you know, that we are in
(25:58):
a hunger, hunger crisis and what that means for your neighbors.
And again, people you worship with or you work with,
and you know there are people who you interact with
every day who don't know where their next meal is
coming from.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
And attention of people.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's a hard concept though, right, Yeah, And people are embarrassed,
they don't want to let you know they don't have
any family.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Listen and as I've said a million times on this show,
things aren't the way you think they are.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Take five minutes to.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Educate yourself and Center Pennsylvania Food Bank can educate you
in so many ways about the seriousness of hunger in
our area and what we can do, how we can
prevent it. And there's so many I would say, like,
I'm thinking like tentacles or fingers out there that you
can jump on to support the food bank. Right, I
got a question for you. If you weren't doing this,
(26:45):
what would you be doing. I usually ask the guys
that and they say, oh, I'll be playing professional baseball.
Yeah right, right right, They all say that.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, I don't know, that's a really good question. I
have always wanted to do something in service industry, and
I wasn't on a planed till I was eighteen, but
I was as a child I thought I wanted to
be a flight attendant. So maybe that I don't know,
that's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
No, you found it right, you found the right And
something else I was noticing. You have a you have
an awesome board.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Some of them have their own nonprofits, you know, Gary
Gilliam and different people like that, but it's your executive board.
You got a couple of gals now, right, Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Yeah, so on the executive team.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Yeah, we have a good mix of guys and girls.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
So yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
It's really great, a really great team.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I'm again so honored to do the work that I'm
doing and behind so many people who are just making
it happen every day.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
And they're lucky to have you. I can guarantee you
this nobody that works at the food bank. I mean
they get the top of the crop. They don't get
just people that are going to do a job. This
is a what's the word, it's a.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Calling maybe for you.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Sure, And even like Joe, Joe's retiring, Joe author is
he retiring.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
He will be with us in a development capacity for
the next three years. So I'm excited to have him around.
The succession has been just a great time and he's
been just so you know, Joe is someone just so
full of integrity and so kind and thoughtful. And you know,
(28:18):
I keep telling people I'm not just saying that because
he's like paid me to say that, but.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
I really really mean that.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Trust I've known Joe for one hundred years, so that's
how he is. Yeah, that's exactly how we need people
like that. I wanted to ask you. I forgot what
else said is going to ask you about? Okay, So
if you want to donate, what's it? Give us the
website again and a telephone number if you think you
need services. If as far as food if you know
(28:45):
someone else you can referm to, if you want to
learn about the food bank, if you want to donate,
if you want to get a class together and donate,
or even businesses can get together and especially the big give.
Trust me, I know the guy who's from my home town,
Joe Bressey, that you started.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
That, Oh yeah yeah, and he's all.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You guys are just totally amazing to me because you're
not certainly not in anybody does things that benefit the community.
Trust me, They're not in it for the money.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
It's it's certainly not the first driver. That's for sure.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's all about you.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
And I want to also remind our wonderful listeners that
sit not really reminded me of thank them, Thank them
so much. And as I said again, the website is
Central Pafoodbank dot org. My guest has been the new
executive director, Shilah williams Ulrich. Thank you Sweety for coming
in and as always, remember you can catch Insight every
Sunday on one of our ten iheartstations or anytime on
(29:41):
your favorite podcast app. I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been Insight.
Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
See you next week.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No
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