Food Infrastructure Recovery Grant Program addresses food security

HARRISBURG — In 2019, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection initiated the Food Infrastructure Recovery Grant Program to address food security.

Funded through the commonwealth’s Recycling Fund, the grant program provides grants of up to $200,000 to Pennsylvania nonprofit organizations to purchase equipment that preserves food, like refrigeration units, for example.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank was a recipient of the highest amount of the grant program, $200,000, and was able to acquire three refurbished refrigeration trucks, as well as the van to enhance the work that they were already doing, Central Pennsylvania Food Banks Executive Director Joe Arthur said during last week’s “Feeding Pennsylvanians, Reducing Waste” panel discussion on food security in Pennsylvania.

“So that really had a direct impact during COVID-19 and actually rescuing a lot more food,” said Arthur.

Arthur has been fighting hunger through the food bank and other endeavors. The food bank is a nonprofit organization where their mission is fighting hunger, improving lives and strengthening communities within the territory of 27 counties in central Pennsylvania, including Clearfield County.

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