“When you wake up in the morning and you don’t know how you are going to feed your children, there is level of stress that you carry around throughout the day,” said Annabel Wulfhart, Founder and Executive Director, Papermill Food Hub. “It’s not just the feeling of hunger. It’s stress and tension that seeps into every bit of the family’s life, and leaks out into the community.”
When Wulfhart spoke to Chestnut Hill Rotary members over a year ago, she never thought that it would lead to a food drive for her organization, Papermill Food Hub, which services families in need in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.
Members sort and packed donated food and supplies.
Chestnut Hill Rotary members and friends donated two carloads of groceries , supplies, and then sorted and packed bags for the 60 families in Kensington and North Philadelphia that Papermill Food Hub serves.
Once the resident of nearby Mt. Airy spoke, member and Community Service Chair, Maggie Stoeffel knew that the club had to help. After speaking with Wulfhart, it was clear that a food drive would be the most effective way to help.
Wulfhart, a social worker, started Papermill Food Hub — named because of the building’s previous use — witnessing first-hand the living conditions of some of her clients in Kensington section of Philadelphia. The area is infamous for extreme poverty and the open-air drug market fueled by the opioid crisis. Every week, her team of volunteers brings a box of grocery and pantry items, including diapers, detergent, and toilet paper to in-need families in Kensington. She is now working full-time as the Executive Director devoted to the not-for-profit organization.
