{"id":143176,"date":"2025-06-15T08:25:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T12:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143176"},"modified":"2025-06-15T08:25:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T12:25:47","slug":"st-lukes-offering-summer-meals-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143176","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s Offering Summer Meals Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Luke\u2019s Offering Summer Meals Program<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the seventh 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<\/a>\u00a0launched the Summer Meals program in response to the Network\u2019s\u00a0Community Health Needs Assessment<\/a>\u00a0(CHNA), which showed that more than half of students in the Allentown and Quakertown Community School Districts are eligible for free and reduced meals during the academic year.<\/p>\n

“At St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network, we believe that no child should suffer the consequences of hunger,\u201d says Bill Moyer, St. Luke\u2019s West Region President. \u201cEnsuring that every child has the nourishment they need to grow strong and stay healthy is fundamental to our commitment to community health.”<\/p>\n

In Allentown, free grab-and-go meals can be picked up at Star Community Health\u2019s Sigal Center on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays beginning at 11:30 am from June 17 \u2013 August 21, 2025. The Summer Meals Program in Allentown is supported by Hatzel & Buehler, Inc., formerly known as West Side Hammer Electric, which has been committed to making an impact in the communities it serves since the program\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n

In Quakertown, meals will be served Monday \u2013 Friday, 12 \u2013 2 pm (except July 4th<\/sup>) at Free Fall Action Park (670 S. Main Street, Quakertown) from June 9 \u2013 August 22, 2025. This location will also be providing children with a bag full of non-perishable food each Friday to take home to their families. Students and families will also be connected to the Quakertown Farmers Market for fresh, local produce. Penn Community Bank has invested in St.\u00a0Luke\u2019s Quakertown Summer Meals since the program began.<\/p>\n

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

“The Summer Meals Program is a critical investment in the health and future of our children,\u201d says Dennis Pfleiger, President of St. Luke\u2019s Upper Bucks and Quakertown campuses. \u201cBy providing consistent access to nutritious meals when school is out, this initiative helps prevent summer hunger, supports child development, and ensures that every student returns to the classroom ready to learn and succeed.”<\/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

To identify other food access points in Allentown, Quakertown, or other regions, please visit\u00a0sluhn.findhelp.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/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 21,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $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. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus. 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, established 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 five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency, and patient satisfaction. St. Luke\u2019s is a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 11 years in a row, including in\u00a02021 when it was identified as\u00a0THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was also identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n

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

St. Luke\u2019s Offering Summer Meals Program For the seventh consecutive year, the St. Luke\u2019s Summer Meals Program will be providing free lunches in Allentown and Quakertown to ensure every child … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Offering Summer Meals Program<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126321,"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-143176","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\/01\/sluhn-medical-advice.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143176"}],"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=143176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}