Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank Thursday held its 3rd annual Celebration of Community and Hope in Berks County at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Reading. The event raised funds for Helping Harvest in support of its mission to feed neighbors experiencing hunger.
Speakers included Russell Redding, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Agriculture; Jay Worrall, President of Helping Harvest; Jess Umbenhauer, Chief Operating Officer of Helping Harvest; Jeanne Boyer Porter, Chair of the Helping Harvest Board of Directors; and Pastor Brian Guzman of Iglesia Cristiana Del Rey in Reading, who provided the invocation.
The program also included messages on the impact of the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen, opened in downtown Reading in April 2025, and a tribute to Helping Harvest’s dedicated volunteers and staff. The evening included a display of artwork in partnership with Olivet Boys & Girls Club.
In his remarks, Secretary Redding said, “Berks County is an extraordinary place…where the harvest meets human hands and is transformed into human meals to meet the hunger.”
He added “Food is more than nourishment. It is a pathway to security…a kitchen like you have [at Helping Harvest] reminds us of that impact.”
In his speech, Worrall cited the challenging climate for food banks due to recent funding cuts and budget impasses, “[There] are substantial, some might say historic challenges to the work that we do. But I would like to share with you the reasons I am so optimistic about the future of our fight to end hunger in Berks and Schuylkill Counties.”
Worrall went on to outline the ways that Helping Harvest is meeting the rising need for food in Berks & Schuylkill counties, despite these challenges. Central to those approaches is the opening and early impact of the Community Kitchen.
Worrall concluded with a thank you to those in the room and a sentiment of continued hope, “I would like to thank all of you in this room who support Helping Harvest’s work providing food to those in need in our community. Because of your commitment, children will go to bed tonight with full bellies rather than going hungry. Because of your generosity, grandparents are not forced to choose between buying medicine or buying food. Because of your kindness, toddlers are entering preschool prepared to learn.
Hunger is a solvable problem. It really is. Let’s work together to make sure no child, no parent, no senior—no one—goes hungry in Berks and Schuylkill County.”
Helping Harvest, the leading provider of food to families in Berks County, has provided services to the county for 42 years. Last year, Helping Harvest supplied $15.2 million (7.8 million lbs.) of nutritious food to Berks County charitable food programs. The Senior Food Box Program distributed almost 584k lbs. of food to lower-income seniors at 63 sites in Berks County. The Weekender Program, which provides a bag of easy-to-prepare meals and snacks for students experiencing food insecurity to eat over the weekend, distributed over 83K bags at 60 sites in Berks County.
Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank is the leading provider of food to neighbors in need in Berks and Schuylkill Counties, PA. Helping Harvest delivers food to over 350 partners in its service area. In 2024, Helping Harvest distributed over $20 million in food to neighbors in need. Helping Harvest is a Partner Food Bank of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.
