Hundreds of volunteers were on the hunt for a golden ticket earlier this month at the Neshaminy Mall. But this flashy paper wasn’t stashed in a Wonka chocolate bar for the chance to win an entire factory.
Rather, Tim Philpot, organizer of United Way of Bucks County’s annual Bucks Knocks Out Hunger initiative, hid a ticket inside one of the shelf-stable meals being packed by volunteers that will soon be distributed to residents in need. When a lucky volunteer, a Penn Community Bank representative, discovered the ticket, this officially commemorated the packing of BKO Hunger’s one millionth meal since its inception in 2016.
“It went excellent,” said Philpot. “I had sort of told them there was gonna be a ticket in there somewhere, so they weren’t totally surprised, but certainly overjoyed.”
Throughout June, the community-driven campaign raised almost $30,000 for Bucks County’s food pantries, all in an effort to advocate for the 7.2 percent of residents and 8.5 percent of kids in the county who are hungry and food insecure.
Ultimately, the goal of BKO Hunger isn’t just to provide access to food … it’s to provide access to healthy, nutritious meals.
For example, one local grandmother struggled to put food on the table when she had to take sole custody of her granddaughter. The situation worsened when the COVID emergency was lifted, and she no longer qualified for food stamps. Sometimes, she didn’t have enough food for both of them. However, thanks to funds raised during BKO Hunger, she’s able to visit United Way’s HELP Center to obtain fresh produce and other nutritious items.
“The fundraising will benefit food pantries through grants that we will give to Bucks County Opportunity Council to buy food, and to Rolling Harvest Food Rescue to provide produce,” said Philpot. “And what’s new this year is that we’re providing $10,000 to support a local pantry that is being operated by Bucks County Housing Group. We’re actually going to help them do their research to find out the best spot in the county.”
BKO Hunger culminated on June 16 at the mall, where volunteers donated their time outside Barnes & Noble to pack 100,000 meals for area pantries.
“I’m incredibly grateful to know how many people care about this issue and come out, and give their time to help us fight hunger,” said Philpot.
According to Philpot, food insecurity isn’t quite as high as it was during the throes of the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean the problem is even close to being solved.
“During COVID, we had a very big spike and we were feeding up to 1,500 families a week at our Fresh Connect. As the pandemic lessened and waned, the numbers came down, but they’re still higher than they were pre-pandemic levels. There are more people using more food assistance sites than there were four years ago.”
It’s going to take continued action from all facets of the community, said Philpot, if Bucks will ever have a chance of officially knocking out hunger.
“There’s no way we’re gonna solve this hunger problem by ourselves,” he explained. “It really does take support from all sectors — the government, private citizens, corporations, foundations — in order to make a measurable difference.”
Those interested can still donate to BKO Hunger, as United Way of Bucks County is close to hitting its $30,000 goal. Visit uwbucks.org/bko-hunger/ for more information.
Keep an eye out for UW Bucks’ annual Stuff the Bus initiative in August, which collects and distributes school supplies.
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
