From The Intelligencer – By Staff report. Posted Oct 2, 2018
Sean Schmid, chief operating officer of Penn Investment Advisors, a subsidiary of Penn Community Bank, gleaned apples at Solly Farm in Warminster alongside Rolling Harvest Food Rescue volunteers during an August 10 event [COURTESY PENN COMMUNITY BANK]
Penn Community Bank of Buckingham has donated $15,000 to Rolling Harvest Food Rescue to help deliver an additional 30,000 pounds of fresh, healthy produce into the hands of food-insecure people across the area.
Rolling Harvest’s goal is to turn area food pantries into farmers markets, by working directly with local farmers to pick up surplus fresh produce from local farm fields and deliver it to hunger relief centers. Penn Community Bank’s donation will support two of Rolling Harvest’s efforts: Fresh Connect Bucks County, a collaborative program that brings free, mobile farmers’ markets to Bristol, Ottsville and Warminster each week, and a new initiative to defray basic infrastructure and labor costs that prevent small farms from donating the fresh produce they grow.
“Our generous local farmers invite us to rescue their surplus produce, but many who want to give can’t afford to make a flat-out donation. Our direct-to-farmer funding model will help support small local farms while also enabling us to put more nutritious food on the tables of our neighbors in need,” Cathy Snyder, Rolling Harvest founder and director, said in a statement.
About 140 Rolling Harvest volunteers rescue produce that otherwise might go to waste from 43 farms across Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and Hunterdon and Mercer counties in New Jersey. Among its dozens of partners are Blooming Glen Farm in Hilltown, Blue Moon Acres in Buckingham, Snipes Farm and Education Center in Falls, and Pennypack Farm and Education Center in Horsham.
Rolling Harvest provides more than 350,000 pounds of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables each year to more than 60 food pantries, shelters, low-income housing developments, senior centers and other hunger-relief locations across the area.
