Feeding Families for Life

Comprehensive Social Services is The Salvation Army’s most universal service provided at every location operated by the organization. As part of this program, the agency offers a variety of services to aid financially struggling individuals and families in crisis. From emergency food and shelter to assistance with household utility and medical expenses, The Salvation Army assists with basic human needs for those in crisis. The food we provide ranges from grocery assistance, weekly meals, soup kitchens, weekend children’s programs called “love in a backpack” and holiday meals.

The Salvation Army wants to change the traditional way we think about feeding the hungry. To that end, we are launching a campaign across all 53 Salvation Army locations (including Camp Allegheny and our Family Caring Center) in the 28 counties we serve in Western Pennsylvania. It’s called UnitedHealthcare Feeding Families for Life, an initiative to fight hunger the healthy way. The goal is to develop a sustainable ongoing program that supports the expansion of healthy eating in our 53 locations throughout Western Pennsylvania. With this goal, we hope to increase the education of families on nutrition and food preparation, to increase the number of families served at The Salvation Army Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens with vegetables, fruits, lean proteins and, nutrient-rich foods, demonstrate how to prepare meals with these foods, and help families to develop budgets to provide lasting nutrient meals to their families.

The food most accessible to low-income families is junk food, full of calories and devoid of nutrition. A child from a food insecure family might eat fast food one night and nothing the next. Breakfast is a bag of chips—and that’s it for the day. Junk food quiets stomach rumbling, but it leads to lifelong health problems. According to the Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger, hungry children are three times more likely to suffer from poor health and be suspended from school. Obese children are more likely to have problems in school, increasing their chances of repeating a grade. The issue of hunger and obesity put children at risk for both physical and mental health issues. The coexistence of hunger and obesity is threatening the health of our children and costing our state billions in health and education. We now face the issue of accessibility of nutritious foods to families within the community to prevent these issues.

Currently, the total number of meals provided by all the facilities within The Salvation Army’s Western Pennsylvania Division was 306,310 in 2016, 78,496 of the meals provided were in Allegheny County alone. There were 456,881 grocery orders placed in 2016 for The Salvation Army’s Western Pennsylvania Division.