Children Benefited from Summer Meals Program in Quakertown

St. Luke’s University Health Network’s new Summer Meals Program in Quakertown achieved its goal of making sure local children had access to nutritious lunches during the summer months.

Throughout the summer, the program provided a total of 593 free meals to children and teens ages 18 and younger who were in need.

In addition to the meals, 150 community-supported agriculture shares were given out to families who have little access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and 109 backpacks full of non-perishable food items were distributed to help feed families over the weekends.

St. Luke’s Summer Meals Program was created in response to the Network’s 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment, which found that many students are eligible for reduced-cost or free lunches during the school year. When school let out, however, these children were at risk of going hungry during the summer.

The Summer Meals Program received a boost from Penn Community Bank, which contributed $15,162.

Thanks to this gift and the work of St. Luke’s to strengthen its community, the children who participated in the Summer Meals Program enjoyed healthy lunches and a head-start on the new school year.

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About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 34 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 263 residents and fellows.  St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke’s hospitals.  St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.