Community bank donates $10,000 to Quakertown area food security initiative
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. (July 2021) – Penn Community Bank, the largest mutual bank headquartered in eastern Pennsylvania, has once again partnered with St. Luke’s University Health Network to ensure no Quakertown-area child goes without a nutritious lunch during the summer months.
“At Penn Community Bank, we believe in the power of community and serving the greater good. That means partnering with local organizations making a difference, including St. Luke’s,” said Jeane M. Vidoni, President and CEO of Penn Community Bank. “We are proud to once again support the summer meals program in the Quakertown community and work to ensure food insecure kids in our neighborhoods have access to healthy meals all year.”
“It is an honor and privilege to once again partner with Penn Community Bank for the St. Luke’s Healthy Kids, Bright Futures Summer Meals Program in 2021. Strong partnerships like this enable St. Luke’s Quakertown | Upper Bucks Campus to support a shared vision for a healthy community. We are grateful for leaders like Penn Community Bank partnering with St. Luke’s to bring healthy food choices to people in our community as this will have a lasting effort on our communities overall health.” said St. Luke’s Quakertown | Upper Bucks Campus President, Dennis Pfleiger.
Penn Community Bank’s contribution of $10,000 expands the program by providing children with access to a wider variety of healthy meal options, weekly community supported agriculture (CSA) items, and weekend snacks and financial literacy education and other engaging activities. The program, launched in 2019, was created in response to St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Community Health Needs Assessment which found over 50% of Quakertown Area School District students are eligible for free and reduced meals during the academic school year and may lack sufficient food during the summer months.
The Quakertown Summer Meals Program will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 29 – August 19, 11:15 am to 1 p.m., at the bus drop-off location for Quakertown Community High School. During the final week of the program, St. Luke’s will offer the Summer Meals Program at the St. Luke’s Quakertown Campus, August 23 – August 27, 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
About Penn Community Bank: Penn Community Bank holds more than $2.5 billion in assets, employs more than 300 people, and offers banking, lending and investments at 22 bank branches and three administrative centers throughout Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania. As an independent, mutual financial institution, Penn Community Bank is not publicly traded and operates with its long-term mission in mind: to help businesses grow and prosper, to provide financial resources to individuals and families throughout their lifetimes, to strengthen the local economy, and to partner with local organizations to act as a catalyst for positive growth in every market it serves.
About St. Luke’s: Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 17,000 employees providing services at 12 hospitals sites and 300+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue in excess of $2.7 billion, the Network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 38 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 347 residents and fellows. St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked St. Luke’s #1 in the Lehigh Valley and #6 in the state. Three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals are St. Luke’s hospitals. St. Luke’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health nine times total and seven years in a row, including in 2021 when it was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. In 2021, IBM Watson Health also named St. Luke’s among 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 the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.
