by Hannah Citron / DelVal Full360 Reporter

Food insecurity is reaching crisis levels across Pennsylvania, and the effects are being felt everywhere. Supply chains are strained, food banks report empty shelves, and more families are turning to emergency pantries than ever before. Always rising food costs coupled with the struggles of depleted SNAP benefits are causing families to have to choose when they can actually eat.

DelVal Full360 reporters spoke with Dr. Allison Buskirk-Cohen, a professor in the Psychology Department here at DelVal, who helped organize a campus-wide food drive in support of A Woman’s Place during the month of October along with Tracey O’Neill, student in Cohort 11 of the Graduate Counseling Psychology program and Psychology Department Graduate Assistant.

“Food insecurity is a pretty broad term, and it means when someone doesn’t have access to sufficient food, so they don’t have access to enough food. Or the food they have isn’t an adequate quality, so it doesn’t have the nutritional quality they need. If it is either or, or some combination of those things, then it’s not enough to meet their basic needs and they’re considered food insecure,” Buskirk-Cohen said.

Food insecurity can be caused by a number of things, but most notably the rise in food costs, the instability of food availability, personal finance insecurity caused by job cuts, layoffs, and freezes, and finally, the current government shut down, which has brought freezes to SNAP benefits along with it. 

“That could impact up to 2 million people in Pennsylvania alone,” Buskirk-Cohen said when speaking on the freeze of SNAP benefits. “One out of three families with kids are struggling economically in Bucks County alone.”  

This was the last straw for DelVal’s Psychology Department. Buskirk-Cohen shared the department’s recent effort with A Woman’s Place in Doylestown. 

“Knowing that the Psychology Department at DelVal had this special connection to A Woman’s Place, [we] quickly rallied to try to gather some support for them.”

Dr. Allison Buskirk-Cohen, professor in the Psychology Department

DelVal’s psychology students at the undergraduate and graduate levels have worked with A Woman’s Place in counseling settings.

A Woman’s Place, like many institutions of support in the area, were looking for shelf-stable essentials and grocery store gift cards, and the Psychology Department did not disappoint in their efforts. Cardboard boxes could be found all throughout campus and, by the end of October, had accumulated quite the supply of donations by students, faculty, and staff. Gift cards and monetary donations through the AWP website were also accepted. All physical donations were delivered to their administrative office, where direct distribution took place by AWP employees to respect their clients’ privacy. 

A Woman’s Place, founded in 1976, is the only domestic violence community benefit organization in Bucks County. AWP provides programs and services to individuals experiencing domestic violence, their children, and the community. Those looking for support from A Woman’s Place can utilize their 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, counseling on an individual and group levels, legal assistance, medical advocacy, and so much more. AWP’s mission is to end domestic and intimate partner violence by empowering survivors, fostering community awareness, and being a promotor of systemic change.

For more information on A Woman’s Place or to make monetary donations, you can visit their website here.

Although the Psychology Department’s sponsored drive has ended, students are still encouraged to find ways to help in their community. The demand from food pantries for shelf-stable products is never ending. Donations of non-expired canned goods, boxed products, and non-refrigerated items are an easy way to give back to the community. An easy way to see what certain food banks need is to call or check their website. 

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