After 20 years of service, the State College Area Food Bank will reach its hand out to the community once again.

The bank held an open house yesterday that continues today. It will hand out prepacked bags of food, offer tours of the facility and present a slide show of the food bank's progress during the last two decades. The open house runs from 6 to 8 p.m. today in St. Andrew's Church, 208 W. Foster Ave. The public is invited to attend.

"The point of this open house is to inform the public about the 'food security' problem in the area," Pat Coble, the food bank's executive director, said.

The food bank also aims to provide basic groceries to needy families and provide information about nutrition and uses for the food, Eleanor Beaver, executive director of the Centre County United Way, said.

"We have very good networking in the area," Ernest Boyd, assistant director of the food bank, said. "We keep close contact with the Salvation Army and other volunteer organizations."

The food bank publishes a quarterly newsletter, Food For Thought, to keep residents of Phillipsburg, Snowshoe and Milheim informed about food distribution in Centre County, Boyd said.

As a result, the food bank has blossomed into the largest volunteer food service in Centre Country, Coble said. In the last year alone it provided food for more than 2,100 people, 41 percent of whom were under the age of 18. On average, the food bank serves 12 to 15 households per week. During the holidays, it increases to 25 to 30 households. They serve about 9,348 bags of groceries per year, Coble said.

And to think the food bank almost never came into fruition.

Although it was only to remain open for a year during the 1982 recession, it became evident as time went on that the food bank was a necessity even when the country's financial situation improved, Coble said.

The Centre County United Way
has been instrumental to the food bank's consistent growth over the
past two decades. Last year alone, the United Way allocated $23,292, Beaver said.

"The purpose of United Way funding is to provide a consistent base of funding -- ideally enough so that the agency does not have to raise so much money themselves," Beaver said.

The United Way also offers supportive assistance to all of its agencies through training in outcome measurement, follow-up workshops and technical assistance in fundraising and outreach activities, Beaver said.

"Whenever there is a project of mutual benefit, we work with the food bank," Beaver said. "For instance, during last spring's Trash to Treasure event, the food bank was asked to participate on the planning committee for the event because they received all three tons of food that had been received."

The food bank also receives financial support from individual contributions, Boy Scouts and church food drives.

"Members of St. Andrew's Church are our last line of defense," Boyd said.

During weekend hours, church members fill in gaps in the working schedule and provide an incredible amount of support to the system, he added.

"We serve a population that is pretty invisible," Coble said. "It's not like a big city -- most people have an occupation during the time they seek us."

In fact, a large percentage of food bank clients have jobs, but their salaries are not stable, their hours have been reduced or their food stamps have been cut, Beaver said. Teenage children from single-parent households also come to the bank seeking support.

"We aim to get people back on their feet in weeks by doling out food supplies and giving them help any way we can," Beaver said.

Numerous projects have been created by the organization, including the Empty Bowl program, in which the State College High School Ceramics Department designs about 1,000 bowls for incoming clients to fill them with contributions of soup and bread which students hand out.

For volunteers such as Laura Jester, who has worked for the food bank since 1986, volunteering has been a reward in and of itself.

"It's great to see what a tremendous impact we have on people," Jester said. "I recall one time we served 24 households in a period of three hours. It has been simply amazing."

In this way, the open house is a chance to thank people for their support over the years and to keep people aware of what the food bank does, Boyd said.