{"id":131661,"date":"2024-06-10T22:28:40","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T02:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=131661"},"modified":"2024-06-10T22:28:40","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T02:28:40","slug":"award-winning-st-lukes-summer-meals-program-for-schoolchildren-returns-to-allentown-and-quakertown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=131661","title":{"rendered":"Award-Winning St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals Program for Schoolchildren Returns to Allentown and Quakertown"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photo provided to TVL by SLUHN)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For the sixth consecutive year, the St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals Program will be providing free lunches in Allentown and Quakertown to ensure every child in need has access to nutritious meals during the summer months.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s Community Health Department created the Summer Meals program in response to the Network\u2019s Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), which showed that more than half of students in these areas are eligible for free and reduced meals during the academic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals is to continue to address the gap in food security during the summer,\u201d explains Kelsey Gasper, Network Initiatives Coordinator, Community Health.<\/p>\n

St.\u00a0Luke\u2019s is once again partnering with Catholic Charities to serve the Allentown community and Free Fall Action Sports to serve the Quakertown community.<\/p>\n

The Summer Meals Program at St.\u00a0Luke\u2019s Sacred Heart Campus runs June 10 to August 23, Monday through Friday, from 12 to 2:00 p.m. except on the July 4th holiday. Lunches will be distributed at 317 N. 4th Street in Allentown at the Hearts in Service (H.I.S.) Center, next to Allentown Central Catholic High School.<\/p>\n

Every Tuesday, fresh produce will also be available for children to share with their families, and on Fridays, they will be given bags full of non-perishable food to take home for the weekends.<\/p>\n

The Summer Meals Program at St.\u00a0Luke\u2019s Sacred Heart Campus is supported by West Side Hammer Electric, a division of Hatzel & Buehler, which is committed to making an impact in the communities where they live and work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Summer Meals initiative has evolved into a great partnership with Catholic Charities in Allentown, and benefits tremendously from the generous support of\u00a0West Side Hammer Electric. Children who otherwise might suffer from food insecurity can be assured that they will have access to nutritious meals,\u201d says Diana Vargas, St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Community Health Liaison Manager.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0St.\u00a0Luke\u2019s Quakertown Campus Summer Meals\u00a0Program will also run June 10 to August 23, Monday through Friday, from 12 to 2:00 p.m. except on the July 4th holiday.\u00a0Lunches will be distributed at Free Fall Action Sports Energy Center at 670 S. Main Street in Quakertown.<\/p>\n

This location will also be providing fresh produce for children to share with their families every Tuesday, and children will receive a bag full of non-perishable food to take home to their families for the weekends each Friday.<\/p>\n

Penn Community Bank has invested in St.\u00a0Luke\u2019s Quakertown Campus Summer Meals since the program began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program has been a priority based on our CHNA and we are honored to provide access to healthy summer meals for our Quakertown community.\u00a0Thanks to the generosity of Penn Community Bank, more children have access to food and other vital resources they need and deserve,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Kathy Ramson, St. Luke\u2019s Quakertown and Upper Bucks Community Health Liaison.<\/p>\n

The contributions from West Side Hammer Electric and Penn Community Bank support a partnership to oversee the program, ensuring children have access to a wider variety of healthy meal options, weekly fresh produce, nourishment over the weekends, financial literacy education and other engaging activities.<\/p>\n

Produce for the program\u2019s meals is provided by\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s Rodale Institute Organic Farm<\/a>. The take-home bags of fresh produce, along with recipes and meal preparation ideas, are provided through the St. Luke’s Community Supported Agriculture program.<\/p>\n

The program is garnering national attention. SLUHN\u2019s Department of Community Health recently earned the 2023 Gold-Level Turnip the Beet Award \u2013 the highest level possible \u2013 for its summer meals program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Food and Nutrition Service.<\/p>\n

The Turnip the Beet Award recognizes outstanding summer meal program sponsors throughout the United States each year. St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals program is one of only two award recipients \u2013 and the only health system honored \u2013 in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Gasper encourages community members in need to take advantage of the award-winning St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur doors are open, and we welcome you in to come eat a hot, nutritious meal. We have other resources available to help address any other needs you may have. We are here to help!\u201d\u00a0she says.<\/p>\n

Separately, St. Luke\u2019s is also supporting the Summer Meals Program in the Upper Perkiomen School District provided by The Open Link with weekly CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo provided to TVL by SLUHN) For the sixth consecutive year, the St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals Program will be providing free lunches in Allentown and Quakertown to ensure every child … Continue reading Award-Winning St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals Program for Schoolchildren Returns to Allentown and Quakertown<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/sluhn-summer-meals.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/131662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}