Pittsburgh Review

Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA), First Lady Frances Wolf, and Russell Redding, the state's Secretary of Agriculture, recently met to discuss the administration's work toward food security.

The meeting occurred at the site of Sharing Excess, an organization started by students from Drexel University, according to a press release from the governor's office. The organization works to fight food insecurity on campus and in the west Philadelphia area. 

"Rescuing and redistributing food excess is not only sustainable, but it's also the right thing for humans to do for one another," Evan Ehlers, founder and executive director of Sharing Excess, said in the press release. "In the United States, we waste more than double the amount of food that's needed to feed everybody that struggles with food insecurity."

Within three years, Sharing Excess has become a network of hundreds of farmers, grocers, restaurants, and wholesalers, the press release noted. This network includes the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market. The organization has contributed millions of pounds of food. It delivers an average of 100,000 pounds of food each week and uses in-house technology to assist other food rescue organizations.

Wolf's administration has worked to reduce barriers to access to food, invest in improved infrastructure for the charitable food system, and support families' improved access to nutritional food since he took office in 2015, according to the press release.

The administration's work to improve food security includes investing in cold storage infrastructure for food banks, funding the Pennsylvania Agriculture Surplus System, and rebranding the Pennsylvania Senior Food Box Program, the press release noted. It has also improved access to fresh, nutritious food in the state through the Fresh Food Financing Initiative and the PA Farm Bill Urban Agriculture Infrastructure Program, raised the income eligibility for residents who receive support from food banks from 150% to 185%, and increased access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

"Since I took office, fighting hunger was a first and foremost priority for Frances and me," Wolf said in the press release. "We put together a blueprint that has worked to improve food access and affordability across the commonwealth. I'm so thrilled that the commonwealth is home to innovative people who share this priority. Together, we can end hunger."

Redding said food is a basic human right and it is his duty and responsibility as a public servant to ensure that Pennsylvanians have access to food.

"Gov. Wolf has met that challenge head-on, to take away decisions of paying for bills or putting food on the table," Redding said.