New Love Center sees growing need to combat food insecurity in the area

But several years ago, the nonprofit faced closure.

Enter a group of compassionate citizens and area churches who came together to form The New Love Center under the theme — Where the Love of Christ Provides for All.

Today, the new Center has evolved to meet the growing challenge of food insecurity in households throughout Lycoming and Clinton Counties.

Indeed, rising food costs have made the Center’s mission and purpose even more of a Godsend to many.

Housed in a former industrial building along Henry Street, a big part of the evolution of The New Love Center involves its quest to teach those who participate in its food pantries and distributions how to eat healthy.

“Food can change your health,” declared Alice Fox Cline, board president and volunteer director of operations.

“We look at, how do we feed the body?” added Dave Winkleman, the center board’s president.

Indeed, the center partners with Geisinger to offer a “Fresh Food Farmacy” strictly for people with Type II diabetes.

Referrals to the pantry must come from Geisinger.

The Center provides fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, low-sugar and low-sodium items, meat and reduced-fat food.

A diverse selection of fresh, canned and bagged foods recently was on display at the center as Fox-Cline, Winkleman and center consultant Jim Edwards hosted an informational tour in South Avis for board members of the Clinton County Community Foundation.

The Lock Haven-based Foundation annually awards thousands of dollars to area food banks through its competitive grant program to help feed residents in need, along with thousands more to nonprofits that provide clothing to families, young mothers and those agencies that offer dental and medical services.

This year, in fact, the Foundation is providing over $40,000 in grants to various food banks in the local area.

“The New Love Center helps to educate clients about healthy eating,” said Winkleman.

That’s “especially important in a throw-away society,” Fox-Cline added, to teach clients the value of fresh and healthy foods. “We have minimal snack-type food.”

Winkleman explained that the state sets expectations that pantries provide a minimum of three meals over three days per month, but The New Love Center far exceeds that.

The Center opens its pantry along Henry Street on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m.

Moreover, the center has a drive-through pantry at 229 South Broad St. in Jersey Shore — the site of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church — the second Friday of each month from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Further, the center offers several other food programs, including Senior Boxes, Veterans Boxes, a backpack program for kids and The Cafe, which serves a hot lunch every weekday and is housed at Trinity United Methodist Church in Jersey Shore.

So what are the numbers of those served?

In 2022, from January to December, the center served 15,580 people representing 6,313 households.

How does that compare?

In all of 2023, it served 35,672 individuals, an increase of 129% over the previous year and representing 14,969 households.

The center is on pace to serve a record number of people facing food insecurity this year due to higher food costs across the board.

The need is growing, the two said.

Clients are screened for need, as they generally must fill out a self-declaration form listing their identification, address and income level.

And there is a region-wide database of clients that shows a low duplication of people engaging with various food pantries, the two said.

The center basically splits its food distribution between Lycoming and Clinton Counties.

But Winkleman and Fox-Cline said many people probably do not know that Clinton County is among counties in Pennsylvania with the highest rate of children with food insecurity.

Food insecurity is measured in levels of severity: The hardship experienced by families and individuals is primarily reductions in dietary quality and variety, and in households with low food security, families eat less and skip meals.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as the pandemic raged in 2022, food prices increased by 9.9 percent, faster than any year since 1979. Food-at-home prices increased by 11.4 percent, while food-away-from-home prices increased by 7.7 percent.

The USDA reports that food prices increased by 5.8 percent in 2023 — though clearly the cost of some items rose much higher. Food price growth slowed in 2023, the USDA said, as economy-wide inflationary pressures, supply-chain issues and wholesale food prices eased from 2022.

While food price growth has slowed, many are skeptical of food prices lowering, and the continued inflation bears that out.

Over the past four years, The New Love Center’s budget has quadrupled.

This year, The New Love Center will spend over $200,000 on food alone. Less than 20% of its food budget is provided by state grant funds; the other 80% comes from individuals, businesses, foundations, churches and local government.

Because of the wide scale of food distribution, the center’s work cannot take place without part-time paid staff and an army of compassionate, dedicated volunteers.

The center, the two said, is blessed by volunteers who provide 800 to 1,000 hours of service per month.

The nonprofit is also the beneficiary of food donations.

Recently, West Pharmaceuticals — a major employer in Williamsport and Jersey Shore — donated just over 3,000 pounds of food collected by employees.

Weis Markets provides frozen meats via a “flash freeze” of meat items before they expire.

And the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank is a huge supplier of food to the center, among others.

To help meet the need, the center now has a mobile food pantry — a 24-foot-long trailer and truck — that visits multiple locations in Lycoming and Clinton Counties.

It is the only such mobile pantry serving the two counties.

“Now we can go where the need is,” said Winkleman.

There are two projects on the center’s list this year: Building a roof over its dock and entryway to an outside freezer in South Avis, and erecting walls in a warehouse it leases that is part of the old Woolen Mills complex in nearby Woolrich. The center is leasing 7,000 square feet from warehouse owner Bob Maguire for food storage.

“The Woolrich location will allow us to handle more bulk food,” Winkleman said. The center welcomes donations and volunteer time toward all of its efforts, he added.

“The Woolrich location will allow us to handle more bulk food,” Winkleman said.

In the end, Edwards noted the center does “not meet 100 percent of anyone’s needs,” but only supplements food needs.

And as Winkleman noted, because the center was born from a ministerium of churches and works as a faith-based organization, it will not turn down people seeking food assistance.

Anyone interested in volunteering, donating or learning more about The New Love Center is encouraged to visit the nonprofit online at www.thenewlovecenter.com, send an email to info@thenewlovecenter.com, or call 570.244.8838. The center also will help organize food collections at workplaces or in the community.

The center also has an emergency food hotline at 570.772.3275.