People often donate only canned goods to charity, but more food banks are trying to solicit fresher, healthier foods for their patrons.

Pat Coble, executive director for the State College Area Food Bank, 208 W. Foster Ave., said sometimes providing fresh produce and dairy products can be a challenge because of lack of refrigeration space.

"We have very limited refrigeration-freezer space. We're on an extraordinarily tight budget," she said.

However, the State College Area Food Bank is able to provide some fresh produce for its customers.

"Our food bank is fairly atypical in State College because at least two-thirds of our food is donated," Coble said.

"We get a wide range of food. We do have fresh bread and pastries every day we're open. We purchase fresh eggs and fresh milk with every order."

The food bank also participates in Tait Farms Food Community Harvest, which provides the bank with organically grown food at a discounted rate for its customers.

"In food drives, we're very fortunate that we have a number of churches and organizations that support us. We ask for specific things. We also have people donate gift cards for grocery stores," Coble said.

The food bank also has prepackaged groceries, which contain a wide variety of foods Coble said.

Judy Kennedy, coordinator for the Bellefonte office of Community Action, said its food bank also tries to provide a large amount of fresh produce for its customers.

"We certainly try to pay attention to [the amount of fresh produce] as we figure out our food distribution for the month. We have to follow the food pyramid guidelines," Kennedy said.

However, Kennedy added that many of its donations are canned vegetables and soups, because those are easy for people to donate.

Both the State College Area Food Bank and Community Action are members of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which provides supplies to food banks and soup kitchens in 27 counties in Pennsylvania.

Coble said the State College Area Food Bank probably gets 1,000 pounds each month from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.

Amy Mountain, spokeswoman for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, said fresh produce is a large part of its operation. "We have a very healthy produce distribution," she said. "We have a number of donors who donate fresh produce. We instituted fresh express to deliver fresh produce to about 20 sites a month."

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank distributed about 940,000 pounds of fresh produce and dairy products last year.

Additionally, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank wants member food banks to be informed of nutritional issues.

"What we do here is we make sure that we are providing information and education pieces to our agencies," Mountain said.

Carla Miller, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, said that the inclusion of fresh produce in one's diet is important for several reasons.

"A high intake of fruits and vegetables has been associated with lower levels of cancer," she said.

Miller added that it is difficult to get some of the nutrients found in fruits and vegetables from other foods.

The deficiency of these nutrients could eventually create dietary problems.

"Their diet will be unbalanced over a long period of time," she said.