Philadelphia, PA, May 6, 2019–Present, Philabundance Community Kitchen is completely built and ready to do big things in North Philadelphia. https://www.philabundance.org/

The Delaware Valley’s largest hunger relief organization, held a groundbreaking for its new Philabundance Community Kitchen job training and meal production facility at 2224 N. 10th Street. Construction will begin immediately on this new, dedicated space for the program; the building is expected to be completed in spring 2020.

Since 2000, PCK has been a free, 14-week culinary training and life skills program, providing opportunities to adults with no- to low income who need not just a job, but a second chance at life. Through city and other food service contracts, PCK has served over 250,000 meals annually to Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents, but it has outgrown its current space at a Philadelphia city housing shelter.

“We are thrilled to welcome Philabundance Community Kitchen’s new home to our community,” Council President Darrell L. Clarke (5th District) said. “No one in the City of Philadelphia should be food insecure, and everyone deserves opportunities for meaningful work. Construction of this building will transform a long-vacant plot of land into a safe community space, and once fully operational, Philabundance Community Kitchen will provide our neighbors the training they need to secure good-paying jobs while giving back by making meals for those facing hunger.”

In its history, PCK has produced more than four million meals, while simultaneously helping more than 850 graduates enter the workforce. Staff support is provided throughout the program, as well as for up to two years after graduation to help participants secure living wage jobs in the culinary industry. Currently, PCK trains between 80 to 100 students annually, but with a new, dedicated space, it can expand its impact in the community.

The new building will be a 18,800 square foot, state-of-the-art culinary training and production facility, allowing PCK to:

– Teach twice as many students

– Send more graduates into the workforce

– Quadruple the number of meals provided to those in need

– Create dedicated space for PCK Catering, a social enterprise whose proceeds go towards the program

Once the new facility opens, the program will be extended to 16 weeks, increasing the amount of time staff will work with students and graduates to stabilize their economic and social well-being, as many students are formerly incarcerated, do not have a high school diploma and/or have not held steady work.

“The City supports the Philabundance Community Kitchen’s expansion because it has improved economic outcomes for more than 850 of our residents, pays a living wage, and provides stability for students by teaching them valuable life skills,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

Feeding The Hungry and Cleaning up our City's Streets, Alleyways & Vacant Lot's will lead to less crime, more socializing outdoors and increased perceptions of safety in the surrounding neighborhood, according to a new study done in Philadelphia and released by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The 38-month analysis of 541 randomly selected vacant lots around the city found that crimes including gun assaults, robbery, burglary, and illegal drug trades decreased by at least nine percent in all neighborhoods that experienced a blight cleanup. Poor sections of Kensington/Allegheny, the Southwest, and North Philadelphia area experienced the most significant decrease in crime when the conditions of lots improved, said coauthor John MacDonald, a University of Pennsylvania professor of criminology and sociology. 

New data recently released by the city ranks these same areas as among the city’s most heavily littered with trash and debris of the lots selected, 201 received makeovers that included trash removal, grading, planting new grass and small trees, and small wooden fencing; 174 received minor upgrades, trash pickup and grass-mowing. The remaining lots received no treatment until the research was complete. Researchers then observed the lots for 18-month periods before and after cleanup. All the lots that received any form of restoration showed a significant a decrease in crime.

In neighborhoods below the poverty line, the drop hit 13 percent with a 29 percent decrease in gun violence, a ray of hope for Philadelphia. In 2017, bullets took the lives of more than 250 people.

Macdonald said the findings carry powerful implications for Philly and other cities struggling with abandonment and crime. The research quantifies the public health and safety payoff that comes when blighted lots are cleaned up.

Abandoned or neglected pieces of land function as open-air drug markets, hiding places for illegal weapons, camouflage for thieves, and escape routes from police.

As a result, neighbors grow fearful of their environment and become prisoners in their own homes. But after surveying 445 randomly selected residents who lived near the tested lots, the study found that safety concerns decreased by 58 percent and use of outside spaces increased by 76 percent after the lots underwent remediation.“People have a sense of ownership more,” said MacDonald. “It’s not a place to hide out easily.

So there’s lots of reasons that in addition to making you feel better, it actually is safe. The findings reinforce a 2015 study from the American Journal of Public Health that sought to establish a biological link between residents and vacant lots. That research found that study participants experienced a drop in stress levels when looking at greened vacant lots, as opposed to untreated lots.

The new study, which was done by some of the same researchers, built on those findings to confirm other public health benefits.

“The effectiveness of infrastructural interventions in decreasing gun violence and crime and increasing perceptions of safety also offers a practical example of a public health approach that transcends the conventional model of targeting behavior change on an individual level,” the paper concluded.

To avoid contributing to trends of gentrification and the unintended displacement of residents, the researchers cleaned up the test lots using inexpensive methods of renewal. Restoring a large lot can cost up to $2,000 in upfront expenses such as seeds, tools and labor costs, MacDonald estimates. But after that, upkeep costs are minimal and don’t need to go beyond regular mowing and trash pick-up. “This could be the segway to general urban redesign,” said MacDonald. Ending the hunger battle in Philadelphia is as bad in my eyes or worst then gun violence.

A NATIONAL EFFORT TO END HUNGER could bring our country together and this goal has in fact, already brought the world together. Ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 by the governments of 193 countries, including the United States, with support from their civil society and business sectors.

And every year, more than 100 million people from all over the world join the middle class. This is important because this allows them to afford more and better food.

2030 sounds audacious. But decades of victory over hunger, despite recent setbacks, reveal a different picture. It is rapid global progress, not any one country’s achievement, which persuades us that ending hunger and malnutrition is possible sooner rather than later.

Global progress against hunger means the entire world—its people, governments, and private businesses—needs to play a pivotal role in the process. Specifically, progress on nutrition, livelihoods, gender, fragility, and climate change is crucial to ensure that the hundreds of millions of people still living with hunger have a real chance at a better life.

These five challenges require more attention to achieve a world without hunger:

Nutrition: Link Nutritious Food with Health

The foods we consume are among the most basic ingredients of human development—as essential as clean air and safe drinking water. All people should have access to food that provides sufficient calories and nutrients to promote good health.

Livelihoods: Fair Opportunities to Earn a Living

The only way to end hunger with dignity is to enable people to earn the income they need to provide enough healthy food for themselves and their children.

Gender: Empower Women and Girls

Women in every society are treated as less valuable and/or less capable. Women and girls are the largest group of marginalized people. Yet food security is dependent on them.

Fragility: Cultivate Peace and Justice

When marginalized groups or people living in extreme poverty turn to violence, hunger is very often an underlying factor. Hunger is both a cause and an effect of the violence associated with fragile environments.

Climate Change: Resilience for an Unpredictable Future

Populations that are most affected by the impact of climate change are those most likely to be hungry. Climate change is the biggest barrier to ending hunger once and for all.