Why your support of PACS is important

 

In Phoenixville, 13% of people live below the poverty line. This is higher than the rate in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area and slightly higher than the rate in Pennsylvania overall.*

 

At Phoenixville Area Community Services (PACS), we serve anyone who needs access to food. We firmly believe access to quality nutritious food is essential for the health of a community.

 

Why We Need Your Support

This past winter at PACS, we saw a 300% increase in the need for food, compared to winter 2021. Despite generous food donations from our community, we are spending almost $10,000 a month to buy additional staples, like milk, bread, and meat to help the people who come to our door.

 

Keep in mind most of these requests involve one client coming to secure food for their household. As a result, in fiscal year 2020, we estimated more than 24,000 people in the Phoenixville community received food provided by PACS. We are already seeing a dramatic increase in the need for food in fiscal year 2022. For many people, PACS is a lifeline to survival during social and economic challenges.

 

What We're Trying to Do

• Expand our programs to meet people where they are—We recently launched a Silver Service program to help our neighbors who are 60+ years old and unable to travel to our office. Qualified neighbors place their orders over the phone, and we deliver the food to them at no charge. This is one of many ways we’re looking to help people in our community access quality nutritious food.

 

• Support other nonprofits with nutritious food—The rising cost of food impacts everyone, including other local nonprofits (like senior centers and veterans’ housing). At PACS, we’re experts in recovering, storing, and distributing healthy food. The relationships we have built with the Chester County Food Bank, Philabundance, and many local grocery stores and restaurants mean we have access to food that other nonprofits may not. With your support, we can continue to do what we do best—secure healthy food and distribute it both at our door and to other nonprofits with clients in need.

 

• Cover the gap for school-age children—With the Phoenixville Area School District now only providing students free and reduced lunches while school is in session, PACS is working to cover the gap for local children when school is not in session. We often need to supplement food donations to meet these needs, which means we need funds to acquire healthy options for local children and their families. 

 

• Expand our service area—While a downtown Phoenixville location is ideal for many of our clients, we recognize there are people in other areas of Phoenixville who would benefit from better access to healthy food. We have limited pop-up food distribution efforts throughout the area but with the cost of gasoline rising, there are significant expenses associated with these efforts. With your help, we could expand our food distribution efforts and provide better access for our clients who have difficulty getting to our building. 

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How You'll Know You're Making a Difference

At PACS, we believe in full transparency with our donors. As such, we offer several ways you can check that your donation is making an impact:

1. We publish an annual report that will be shared with you.

2. We welcome you to come tour our facilities at any time.

3. We publish a regular e-newsletter that details our activities. 

4.  For our large donors, Executive Director Mary Fuller can meet with you at predefined intervals (for example, annually, monthly or on a more regular basis), based on your preference. 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to share our work and our vision to help ensure food security for the children, families, veterans, and so many others in Phoenixville. This is a special community, one that we are incredibly grateful to serve.