Agricultural Partnerships Supporting Farmers, Feeding Neighbors With so much food produced in Pennsylvania, there’s no reason anyone in our state should experience hunger. And yet, more than 1.7 million Pennsylvanians do. We're forging partnerships with farmers, processors and distributors to give Pennsylvania’s food banks a wider range of nutritious food. 0M+Households served 0participating vendors Flagship Program PASS Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System While we partner with farmers across several programs, PASS is the largest. It provides millions of pounds of food each year to families in every county of Pennsylvania. It also directly supports farmers and processors by paying them a fair price for the food they share. Learn More Bid. Buy. Donate. junior Livestock Auctions Supporting PA Food Banks Each fall, thousands of young farmers in Pennsylvania compete for prize money, showcasing their livestock at fairs and farmshows around the state. At the same time, there are millions of Pennsylvanians who don’t have enough to eat. That’s where this partnership between the Feeding PA and the PA Fairs community comes in. Bid. Buy. Donate. provides our food banks the opportunity to offer a diverse range of food while supporting local farmers, processors and distributors. Bid. Buy. Donate. How it Works There are several winners with the Bid. Buy. Donate. program. Young contestants sell their animals and receive the funds. Winning bidders who choose to donate their animals are eligible for tax benefits. Local processors and local food banks receive fresh meat—like beef, pork, goat and lamb—to share with our neighbors in need. PASS program funds are used to cover processing, packing and transportation costs. Local FooD Purchase Agreement How it Works The Local Food Purchase Agreement program procures top-graded, high-quality products for distribution in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. The program aims to serve at least a million low-income Pennsylvania households by working with more than 189 farms, producers and food companies, including 58 direct-to-agency delivery partnerships. The program is a partnership between the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and the state of Pennsylvania. fact sheet Ready to Get Involved? If you’re interested in participating in PASS, please contact Tom Mainzer, our director of agricultural partnerships, at tm******@*******pa.org. We value the opportunity to help provide nutritious vegetables to those in need. The PASS program has greatly helped our business. Jackie Nell | Lebanon County The Nell’s Story Our work with the food bank has given us flexibility to shift production capacity exclusively to food bank products when demand may be temporarily low and we may have had excess milk. Jason Frye | Westmoreland County Pleasant Lane’s Story Without their purchasing volume using PASS and LFPA funds, we would have struggled to find markets for a significant portion of our crop. Brian Smith | Bucks County Solebury Orchards’ Story