Leftover Food From Papal Visit Becomes Blessing To Area's Hungry
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This past weekend's Papal Visit was a disaster for most local restaurants as residents of the city left town and schools and offices closed a couple of days before Pope Francis arrived. However, there is a silver lining.
Stephanie Ark-Bay of Philabundance, the regions largest hunger organization, says she's been handling a lot of phone calls this week.
"Philabundance does not take prepared food. However, we have a network of 400 agencies in nine counties that some of them do take prepared food. So depending on the donation, we've been trying to help place them with our member agencies," Ark-Bay explained.
It's not just restaurants that are in a giving mood. At the Share Food Program in East Falls, Sydell Zove says they received about nine pallets of wrapped meals from a local hospital that had overestimated the amount of workers that needed to be fed.
"Prepared packaged food including boxed lunches and snacks, grilled chicken and a side Caesar salad. We have been in touch with cupboards and told them to be ready to receive healthy food," Zove said.
Zove adds that there's enough food to easily feed hundreds and hundreds of people.