100% of your donation brings food and essential items to families in Kensington and North Philly

Every week, our team brings a box of grocery and pantry items, including diapers, detergent, and toilet paper to in-need families in Philadelphia. We partner with block captains, early intervention teachers, and a local soccer club to identify the families we serve, and work with those families to determine their most pressing needs. We operate out of the Kensington neighborhood, the area in Philadelphia most heavily impacted by the effects of the opioid crisis and COVID-19. In addition to food and diapers, the Hub has sourced winter coats, cribs, furniture, household items, clothes and sneakers for our families’ kids. We have been doing weekly deliveries since June 2020.

Every donation we receive goes directly to fund these boxes and we’re actively pursuing partnerships with local businesses to alleviate these costs.

Currently it takes about $25 to serve a family with a week’s worth of food, diapers, and supplies.

About Our Work

The Papermill Food Hub is located in the heart of Kensington, a neighborhood struggling with the opioid epidemic, COVID-19, and rampant unemployment. Kensington is located in a “food desert”, meaning there is a lack of access to grocery stores in the area. As a result of these compounded factors, items like groceries, diapers, toilet paper, and masks are hard to access. The Papermill Food Hub is working to provide as many boxes of groceries and essential items as possible to families in need. Here are a few stats that inspire our work.

• 23% of Philadelphia residents live under the poverty line, the largest percentage of any major US city.

• 36% of American families experience diaper insecurity.

• Of these families, 60% are likely to miss at least one day of school or work due to diaper insecurity.

• For households making minimum wage, approximately 14% of their income will go towards purchasing diapers.

• Since the beginning of the pandemic, diaper prices have increased 14% on average.

• The Papermill Food Hub delivers roughly 2,000 diapers/week, at no cost to the recipients

We started this program in June 2020, delivering to twenty-one families in the neighborhood. One of our founding members has worked for years in the neighborhood providing Early Intervention to children with Autism. Calling on her co-workers, she was able to connect with families struggling the most and ask about their direst needs. Most asked for diapers for their children, especially those who tend to be slower to potty train as a result of developmental issues, and gave us their diaper sizes. Many others asked for food support, which we began providing through weekly grocery bags.

What makes the Papermill Food Hub unique is that we offer consistent weekly deliveries to families, at absolutely no cost to them. We do not want lack of transportation to be a reason that our families are not able to get the resources they need: so, each Sunday our drivers meet up at our distribution center on Martha Street to pick up their deliveries. 

With your help, we hope to keep growing. If you think you are able to provide us with help, or know any other way of assisting our cause, we would deeply appreciate it and hope we can all band together to help some of our neighbors through this very tough time.