From Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank
Pictured above: Penske employees celebrate breaking the single shift record for the number of meals packaged in the Community Kitchen in February 2025—2,225 meals in two and a half hours.
The Helping Harvest Community Kitchen, located in downtown Reading, recently surpassed 100,000 meals distributed since its opening in April 2025.
The kitchen provides a variety of meals for neighbors experiencing food insecurity in Berks and Schuylkill counties, primarily focused on specific populations such as seniors. The types of meals include frozen heat-and-eat ready meals and bulk ingredients repackaged into family-friendly portions, both distributed through Helping Harvest’s network of agency partners and programs such as Mobile Markets, as well as hot congregate meals served by Helping Harvest’s shelter and soup kitchen partners.
“This [Community Kitchen] project has surpassed my wildest dreams,” said Helping Harvest President Jay Worrall. “When we moved in last April, our goal was to produce 2,500 meals per week by the end of our first year of operation. We are now 11 months in, and we’ve had single volunteer shifts of just a couple hours come close to hitting that number. It’s amazing.”
A volunteer shift in February, comprised largely of Penske employees, broke the single shift record for number of meals packaged—2,225 meals in two and a half hours.
“We believe that everyone deserves access to tasty and nutritious food, and that belief is behind every menu planning decision we make in the kitchen,” said Chef Melanie Galarza, Director of Culinary Operations at the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen. “We also have a lot of fun and enjoy what we do, and I think that’s a big part of why volunteers like spending time with us. They feel like they are doing good for their community and having fun at the same time. The result is that we’re able to get a lot accomplished with the help of volunteers.”
The Helping Harvest Community Kitchen will celebrate one year of operation in mid-April.
About Helping Harvest Community Kitchen
The Helping Harvest Community Kitchen is a 7,000 square foot commercial kitchen that opened in late April 2025 at 229 Washington Street in Reading, PA. The Helping Harvest Community Kitchen creates heat-and-eat ready meals for neighbors facing food insecurity in Berks and Schuylkill counties. This facility allows Helping Harvest to accept bulk food donations, which are used to prepare thousands of meals weekly for distribution through Helping Harvest’s extensive pantry network. The kitchen boasts an experienced culinary team made up of three trained chefs. Currently, two shifts of volunteers per day work with the chefs to prepare and package meals and repackage bulk food donations into family-sized portions. The kitchen also prepares hot congregate meals for Helping Harvest’s partner agencies to serve to neighbors in need. In 2025, the Community Kitchen distributed approximately 90,000 meals, including over 14,000 Thanksgiving heat-and-eat ready meals.
About Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank
Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank is the leading provider of food to people in need in Berks and Schuylkill counties. Helping Harvest delivers food to over 350 partners in its service area. In 2025, Helping Harvest distributed over $21.8 million in food to neighbors in need. Helping Harvest is a Partner Food Bank of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.
