Lycoming County commissioners read and signed a proclamation recognizing September 2025 as Hunger Action Month and invited the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank to brief the board on local food insecurity during a public meeting. The proclamation cites Feeding America figures and local estimates and urges residents to support relief efforts. Commissioner Scott Olmetzger, Vice Chairman Mark C. Sorkin and Secretary Mark Messina signed the proclamation.

The proclamation said Feeding America estimates “over 1,500,000 individuals, 1 in 8 Pennsylvanians and 1 in every 6 children experience food insecurity,” and that in Lycoming County “1 in 7 neighbors and 1 in 5 children are food insecure.” It also noted that the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank distributed “over 67,500,000 pounds of food in fiscal year 2025” and that “just shy of 4,000,000 pounds” went to Pennsylvanians experiencing food insecurity in Lycoming County.

Emily Cameron, agency services, training and development coordinator for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, told commissioners the region served by the bank is large — from the New York border to the Maryland border — and that the food bank is preparing a hyperlocalized hunger-mapping report for 2026. “The stats for Lycoming County are continuing to get worse,” Cameron said. “We're actually going to be doing a hunger mapping, a community hunger mapping, data that we're collecting right now… We have a lot more autonomy over the way that we interact with our agencies here and try to procure food.”

Cameron told the board that some pantries are “completely bare” while demand is rising and noted the state budget for Pennsylvania had not been passed at the time of the meeting, a factor she identified as worsening local shortages. She urged residents and officials to support the food bank and partner agencies through donations and volunteering.

Commissioners and other speakers praised the work of the food bank and encouraged residents to donate or volunteer. One commissioner noted local civic groups and scout troops have continued food drives and urged people to buy extra items on sale for donation. No formal county funding action was announced at the meeting; the board issued the proclamation and accepted the food bank briefing.

The food bank’s hunger-mapping report, expected in 2026, was presented as a tool commissioners and local grantmakers can use to allocate resources and target interventions.