AARP PA Awards Hunger Grants to Philadelphia Area Faith-Based Organizations

AARP Pennsylvania recently awarded $10,000 in grants to faith-based organizations in Philadelphia. The grants were awarded to assist in fighting hunger among people age 50+ in Philadelphia’s African American community by funding hunger relief projects led by twenty faith-based organizations. Awardees were presented the grants at a brunch hosted on AARP Pennsylvania on Friday, November 21, at the First District Plaza.

Hunger continues to adversely impact the lives of the 50+ in Pennsylvania, with nearly 6 percent of persons in that age group at risk of hunger. A 2010 study by the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center found that 16.2 percent of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older did not have enough money to buy food at some point in the previous year. In Philadelphia, more than 470,000 residents receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income people buy groceries.

“AARP recognizes that ending hunger is about more than providing meals,” says Angela Foreshaw-Rouse, AARP PA Manager of State Operations and Community Outreach. “AARP Pennsylvania is honored to support the work of these organizations, many of whom run soup kitchens, host community meals for persons in need and deliver food baskets to 50+ aged members of their congregations.”

Awardees are as follows:

• New Life Church of God
• Tindley Temple United Methodist Church
• New Covenant Church of Philadelphia
• African Methodist Episcopal Union Church
• Deliverance Evangelistic Church
• First African Presbyterian church
• Our Lady of Hope Parish
• Concerned Black Catholics of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church
• Masjid Mujahadeen
• Pinn Memorial Baptist Church
• Zion Hill Baptist Church
• Masjidullah, Inc.
• Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Freedom Bible Fellowship Church Development Corp
• New Vision United Methodist Church
• Mt Enon Baptist Church
• Greater Enon Missionary Baptist Church
• The Philadelphia Project
• St Michael’s Lutheran Church
• North Philadelphia Seventh Day Adventist Church

 

The hunger grants are a key part of AARP Pennsylvania’s local efforts in fighting hunger, and part of an overarching mission from AARP as a whole. AARP is bringing awareness to the growing problem of food insecurity by convening organizations and policy makers, examining and discussing how to break down the barriers that currently exist for connecting older adults in need with food assistance, and finding sustainable solutions to the hunger problem in our country. More information about AARP’s hunger work can be found at www.aarp.org/hunger