SEPTA Collects Nearly 18 Tons of Food

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SEPTA’s generous customers and employees once again helped Philabundance fill its shelves with food staples by contributing almost 17.8 tons of food during the Authority’s third annual “Stop Hunger at Your Station” food drive.

“We cannot thank our passengers and employees enough for their continued support of the ‘Stop Hunger at Your Station’ food drive,” said SEPTA General Manager Joseph Casey. “The donations Philabundance receives from our food drive will make a difference to thousands of Delaware Valley residents, especially children.”

From June 6 through June 24, SEPTA collected donations of canned and boxed goods at more than 50 designated stations throughout the transit system. A specially wrapped “Stop Hunger at Your Station” SEPTA bus also toured the region throughout the food drive, collecting items such as peanut butter, jelly, canned pasta and tuna. Monetary donations received during the food drive also counted towards SEPTA’s overall collection total.

Since 2009, SEPTA customers and employees have donated over 46 tons of food to Philabundance. “The need for food assistance is rising across the nine counties we serve,” said Philabundance President and Executive Director Bill Clark. “Philabundances’s food donations are down 41 percent from this time last year, which makes meeting the mounting need for food more daunting than ever. SEPTA’s drive will help us get much-needed food to thousands of people struggling to put food on the table.”

Philabundance is the largest hunger-relief organization in the Delaware Valley. In 2010, Philabundance distributed 21 million pounds of food.