Feast of Justice

Dear Tricia,

As the weather turns colder and the state of the world seems uncertain, we turn to one another for warmth and community. This is a time when it is as pertinent as ever to express compassion, grace, and dignity to our neighbors. We are immensely grateful for the support we have already received from many of you during this holiday season.

Feast of Justice is committed to fostering the growth of our community. As a small example, when we have too much bread to give out during distribution, we simply put it outside for our neighbors to take freely. Small, creative solutions help build our impact. 

Just as we like to provide special opportunities to our community, we invite you to give alongside us and help us solve problems creatively!

In peace,

The Feast of Justice team

From fall 2021 to 2022, we served almost 1,500 families.

From fall 2022 to 2023, we served nearly 2,500 - that’s 1,000 more families. 

From last fall to now, we've served a record high of over 3,500 families!

This data represents the increasing food insecurity among Northeast Philadelphia residents, as well as the extent to which Feast of Justice has reached and engaged with our community as a trusted resource. 

During the month of November alone, we distributed food to 1,623 families!

Our growth throughout the years has been enabled by recruiting a consistent volunteer base, providing quality food with a shopping experience centered on dignity, and hosting community programming. It is through your support that we have been able to keep expanding our capacity.

When November rolled in, we kicked off our holiday programming to provide more guests with opportunities to access food and celebrate the fall festivities with their loved ones. In addition to our guests making use of our holiday food programs, we have continued to collaborate with our agency partners to host classes and opportunities open to the community! 

We recently started hosting financial literacy classes taught by M&T Bank, and inviting the community to join us in drafting a policy for a smoke-free environment at our locations through the Clean Air Council. This December, we look forward to continuing our American Heart Association workshop series on health education. 

Through collaboration with our Northeast Services Hub agency partner, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, we are excited to receive a grant from the William Penn Foundation that will, over 3 years, help us connect our guest population with SNAP benefits. We also recently received funding from the Leo and Peggy Pierce Family Foundation, the Albertson’s Nourishing Neighbors program, and the M&T Charitable Foundation. In total, these foundations will provide us with over $250,000 to help us connect guests with benefits, enable access to more healthy foods, and extend our volunteer outreach programming. 

By connecting our community to wrap-around opportunities beyond food, we can enable families to not merely survive, but thrive.

Our work serving hundreds of guests each week would not be sustainable without our volunteers. Volunteers engage in direct service on-site, facilitate our programming, and help us deliver food to home-bound guests. 

Our afterschool incentive program has been successful in galvanizing more youth to volunteer on weekdays during the school year. We have also been thrilled to welcome (or welcome back!) volunteers through VolunteerPalooza, who are driving our holiday programming. 2024 has seen nearly 1,000 volunteers supporting our efforts!

As we get ready for 2025, watch for some exciting developments as we strengthen our volunteer program–by involving volunteers in more behind-the-scenes capacity building work, and engaging more volunteers in leadership roles through training. We are eager to engage the skills of our community in ALL of the work that we do!

Our volunteers come to Feast of Justice from all walks of life, to work together for the mission of serving Northeast Philly’s families. We are forever grateful for our dedicated returning volunteers and enthusiastic new volunteers for supporting our programming this fall!

Every year during the holiday season, guests seek our services in order to be able to celebrate festivities with friends and family. Spread the holiday joy with us!

Contributions to Feast of Justice come in many forms. This season, you can support us in a multitude of ways: 

• Donate to our end-of-year “Healthy Feast” campaign for nutrition education programming. Help us build our capacity to not only engage, but empower our community through resources to utilize healthier, culturally relevant food choices. 

• Organize a food drive or donate food for our guests. Want to know what items are popularly requested by guests? View our food drive flyer for a list of food and home essentials we are seeking. 

• Volunteer your time and skills with us. We are always welcoming new faces, and right now, we have just the opportunity. If you want to volunteer with us for the first time and experience the action, or have occasionally volunteered with us in the past, join us for one of our 2 upcoming VolunteerPalooza Sundays in December! We welcome you to invite your friends, family, community members, or place of worship.