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SEPTA Helps Stop Hunger

SEPTA Helps Stop Hunger

Customers and Staff Contribute Almost 33,500 Meals for Philabundance

Category: Press Release
Published

SEPTA’s generous customers and employees have come through once again for their neighbors in need. Almost 15,500 pounds of food – or 15,500 meals for Philabundance and its member agencies – were collected during the authority’s two-week “Stop Hunger at Your Station” food drive. Monetary gifts of $9,000 received during the food drive mean an additional 18,000 meals for residents served by Philabundance and its member agencies. This year’s food drive helped support Philabundance’s programs to provide meals for thousands of children in the Greater Philadelphia region that miss free and reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches when the school year ends.

Since 2009, SEPTA customers and employees have donated more than 139,000 pounds of food. With monetary contributions of approximately $53,000, SEPTA customers and employees have given the equivalent of more than 245,000 meals over the course of the drive’s eight-year history.

“Every year, our riders and our employees go above and beyond to help Philabundance through the ‘Stop Hunger at Your Station’ food drive,” said SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey D. Knueppel. “This support was especially needed this year as we worked to provide nutritious food for children in need across our service area. I am proud of our customers and our employees for their continued generosity.”

During the food drive, held June 6-20, SEPTA collected donations of canned goods at 43 designated stations throughout the transit system. A specially wrapped “Stop Hunger at Your Station” SEPTA bus toured the region throughout the food drive, collecting items such as peanut butter, jelly, canned pasta and tuna.

Philabundance is the Greater Philadelphia region’s largest hunger-relief organization, serving 90,000 people per week in nine counties in PA and NJ, 30 percent of whom are children and 15 percent of whom are seniors. In 2015, Philabundance distributed approximately 30 million pounds of food across the Delaware Valley.

If you know someone in need of food assistance, tell them to call 1-866-3-Hungry. For any other questions about Philabundance, visit http://www.philabundance.org.