Crowdsourcing The Fight Against Hunger - A Dan Flood Update
Photos by Aimee Dilger | Video by Kelly Dessoye | Article by Kelly Dessoye
“We’re heading over there to feed people,” the click click click of her turn signal kept tempo as Clancy Harrison’s SUV rolled over the Market Street Bridge from Wilkes-Barre to Kingston.
Harrison, the former president of the Al Beech West Side Food Pantry, lilted through rush hour traffic balancing a trunk filled to the brim with canvas bags of nutrient dense produce - the yield of a GoFundMe campaign set up to support the residents of Daniel Flood Tower Apartments in the wake of Focus Journalisms’ coverage of the Al Beech closure.
Volunteers carry bananas to the Dan Flood high-rise.
Earlier that day a representative for Harrison called Kerri Zurcher - property manager of the subsidized apartment complex - locally known as Dan Flood. “I didn’t realize how quickly they were going to want to come,” she said over the phone about the grassroots mobilization effort where Harrison’s organization - the Food Dignity Movement - roped together Pennsylvania farmers, purveyors, a local school, and Zurcher for a pre-Thanksgiving produce pop-up to serve the residents there.
Veggies from Pennsylvania farmers and purveyors.
Harrison resigned as president of Al Beech on September 21, 2021 and The Church of Christ Uniting suddenly closed the pantry the next day - wiping out an entire supply chain of healthy food for Dan Flood’s residents - many of whom don’t have a car or reliable means of transportation to get to the nearest grocery store, which is about half a mile away. Moreover, many of the residents are elderly and live with chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer, which is better managed by a diet that includes fresh fruits and veggies - items that a hungry person on a budget is hard pressed to find at the nearby Walgreens, CVS, or Rite-Aid.
Over the course of her 12 year stint at Al Beech, Harrison leveraged her background as a registered dietician to curate a cost-free selection that transcended the produce aisle at a fancy grocery store through partnerships with local distributors and farmers, such as Fullers Overlook Farm in Waverly, PA, and Kegel’s Produce in Lancaster, PA. Both rallied to supply Harrison with produce for the pop-up.
“We want to take the food to them because it breaks down that [transportation] barrier and we want to make sure that the food we’re taking to them is high quality, nutrient rich food that I would want to eat - that I would want my children to eat.”
The Distribution Day
So on November 17, 2021, Harrison eased into the parking lot of Dan Flood to distribute over 60 bags of produce with the help of former Al Beech volunteer Rena Briggs, students from Wyoming Seminary, and Food Dignity Movement employees Amanda Gordineer and Amanda Frankeny. A handwritten sign tacked to a bulletin board at the ground floor elevator alerted the residents to the 1.5 hour pop-up. Even on such short notice, the lobby teemed with people eager to add the likes of apples, carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, celery, and lettuce to their meals.
“If you’re in a situation [where] you can help, it’s just our job to do that. Why wouldn’t you do it?” pondered Harrison.
Play the video above for a look into the distribution day.
A volunteer carries bags to the Dan Flood Towers.
The Reception
The pop-up reverberated throughout the local charitable food system - all the way to CEO Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank - which already supplies Dan Flood with monthly food boxes for qualifying senior citizens; instituting a twice monthly distribution that will be open to every resident of Dan Flood regardless of age. The distribution will leverage the building’s already comprehensive COVID protocol and spacious community room so residents can pick from a variety of goods including milk, frozen meats, canned goods, and produce.
“They’re [CEO] pretty much offering up the world [of food],” said Zurcher. “I really had no idea how deep the food insecurity went here in my building, so it gave us an opportunity to further assist our tenants. It also provides us that extra step where our tenants don’t have to go anywhere. It’ll be here - it’ll come directly to them.”
The Future
Mary Ellen Spellman of CEO Weinberg says the agency is still on the hunt for a large open area, like a parking lot, with sponsorship from a non-profit on the west side of Kingston, PA to replace Al Beech. In the meantime, they’re dedicated to ensuring tenants of Dan Flood have access to healthy food.
“We agreed to distributions twice a month and I told [Zurcher] if the need was greater we could [distribute] weekly, if the need was less we could do it once a month so we’re just going to gauge it...see what the turn out is and the overall acceptance of it. I definitely think we’ll keep two distributions, if we could get a third distribution in there that would be fantastic.”
Students from Wyoming Seminary help prepare bags of fresh produce to hand out at Dan Flood.
For her part, Zurcher is welcoming anyone who has ideas and resources for her tenants. People like Harrison, who still feels tethered to that community.
“I served those people for 12 years. We’ve gotten to really know our neighbors in that apartment,” she said before the distribution, still tucked behind the steering wheel of her SUV. “I think we’re going to have the resources to help raise funds so we can keep providing food to people who need it to help prevent and manage their chronic disease. One drop-off of produce isn’t enough and we need to make sure we’re providing a steady supply. So I feel bad that it’s been two months but we’re here now and we’re not going anywhere.”
You can donate to the Food Dignity Movement’s GoFundMe campaign for Dan Flood, which you’ll find here and on Focus’ Resources page.