Price Rite Marketplace teamed up with anti-hunger organization Feed the Children and event partners Perdue and Hope Rescue Mission to distribute food and essentials to 400 local families on Thursday, August 27.

The community event is part of the supermarket retailer’s 2020 Feeding Minds & Bodies Campaign, in partnership with Feed the Children, which helps food insecure and struggling families in the communities where Price Rite Marketplace stores operate.

Each family, pre-identified based on need by Hope Rescue Mission, received a 25-pound box of food; 15-pound box of essentials like shampoo, conditioner, lotion and personal-care items; additional shelf-stable items provided by Price Rite Marketplace and two backpacks filled with school supplies.

“Now more than ever families are facing food insecurity due to this pandemic,” said Jim Dorey, president of Price Rite Marketplace. “Giving back to the communities we serve is at the heart of Price Rite Marketplace and we’re proud to continue our partnership with Feed the Children for a sixth year and provide food and essentials to local families in need.”

Fighting hunger is at the heart of Price Rite Marketplace’s charitable giving and, paired with Feed the Children’s vision to create a world where no child goes to bed hungry, the two created an initiative called Feeding Minds & Bodies, which is designed to help bring attention to and fight the serious issue of childhood hunger.

The two organizations plan on hosting eight events in 2020 to address seasonal issues surrounding food insecurity, including the lack of food during the summer months, back-to-school season and the holidays.

“We believe that no child should go to bed hungry, especially during this time of instability around COVID-19,” said Travis Arnold, president and CEO of Feed the Children.

“This crisis has put a strain on our resources and the resources of our partners. However, through our partnership with Price Rite Marketplace, we can support America’s most vulnerable and restore hope for the future.”

Since partnering with Feed the Children in 2015, Price Rite Marketplace has contributed nearly 2 million pounds of food, totaling more than $7 million in gift-in-kind donations.

The Berks County Community Foundation has announced it has elected new board chair and members this week.

Business strategy consultant Alfred J. Weber has been elected chair of the board of Berks County Community Foundation, which also welcomed new board members Susan Denaro, Esq., and Gabriela Raful, Esq.

In addition, board member Michael L. Mixell, Esq., has been elected Assistant Treasurer of the Community Foundation. Also, board members Stephen M. Fritz, Elaine McDevitt, and Mixell were re-elected to additional three-year terms.

Weber has been in the consulting industry since 1974 and has been the president of his own company, Tweed-Weber-Danks, Inc., since 1984. During that time, he has worked with hundreds of businesses, not-for-profit organizations, health and home care agencies, and associations across the country. The fundamental focus of Weber’s work is helping clients build and implement strategies to gain and sustain competitive advantage in their marketplaces.

Weber also serves on the boards of Our City Reading Inc., Tompkins Financial Corporation, Tompkins VIST Bank, Boscov’s LLC, New Standard Corporation, and Misco Products Corporation. He formerly served on the boards of United Way of Berks County, Berks County Chamber of Commerce (now Greater Reading Chamber Alliance), Berks County Workforce Investment Board, Greater Berks Development Fund, Burn Prevention Foundation (now Burn Prevention Network), and Alvernia University.

Sue Perrotty, immediate past board chair, will serve as an ex-officio board member for one year. Following a distinguished 27-year career in banking, she served as the Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Pennsylvania, the Honorable Marjorie “Midge” Rendell. While in banking, Perrotty held the position of Executive Vice President and head of Global Operations for First Union Corp. as a member of the Office of the Chairman in Charlotte, N.C., retiring after serving on the merger integration team overseeing the Wachovia Bank merger. Perrotty has served many nonprofit organizations around Berks County. She is president and owner of BAC Services LLC.

Denaro is an attorney at Georgeadis Setley. Denaro has practiced law for 31 years, primarily in the area of estate planning/administration and adoption. She also handles guardianship, real estate, mediations, and family law matters. She is the Solicitor for the Prothonotary of Berks County, a position she has held for 26 years. Denaro serves on the boards of the Yocum Institute and Co-County Wellness Services. She is an honorary board member of both the Wyomissing Public Library and the LGBT Center of Greater Reading. She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Reading.

Raful is a Senior Partner at Galfand Berger, LLP, where she represents injured clients in the areas of workers’ compensation, personal injury, products liability, and social security disability. A native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Raful is fluent in Spanish. Raful is passionate about immigrant rights and injured workers. Raful is a past board member of the Berks County Bar Association, where she still serves as Chair of the Minority Law Section. The section’s purpose is to promote full and equal participation of minorities in the justice system. Because of her contribution to community and her extensive pro bono work, the Berks County Bar Association awarded Raful its 2017 Presidential Award of Merit.

Mixell is a partner at Barley Snyder, where he advises clients in the areas of corporate succession and estate planning, as well as banking and commercial, corporate, and real estate matters. He has extensive experience with mergers and acquisitions for privately controlled businesses and nonprofits. Mixell also represents commercial and nonprofit-lending institutions.

Fritz retired as president of VF Outlet Inc. after 30 years with VF Corp. He served in several roles for VF Corp. before being named president of Jantzen in Portland, Ore., and then becoming president of VF Outlet in 2002. He has served on various nonprofit boards in Berks County.

McDevitt is the retired CEO of The Rose Corporation, Reading. She worked in that family business for more than two decades. She is a board member at bctv.org and the Berks County Municipal Authority and previously served as a board member and marketing vice president for Hawk Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America.

James S. Boscov and Latisha Bernard Schuenemann, Esq., have stepped off the Community Foundation board after completing the maximum-allowed three terms of three years each (for a total of nine years as board members). Boscov is CEO of Boscov’s. Schuenemann is a shareholder at Leisawitz Heller.

Other current Community Foundation board members: Eric Burkey, President, Burkey Group; Lyn Camella-Rich, Co-owner and artist, Dancing Tree Creations Artisans Gallery and Studio; Vicki Ebner, Senior Counsel, East Penn Manufacturing; P. Michael Ehlerman, Former Chairman, Yuasa Battery Inc.; Kevin K. Murphy, President, Berks County Community Foundation; Bala Peterson, Senior Staff Engineering Lead, WarnerMedia; Marilu Rodríguez-Bauer, Esq., Founder, RB Legal Counsel LLC; and Ramona D. Turpin, Workforce Development Coordinator, Literacy Council of Reading-Berks Inc.

Frances A. Aitken, CPA, COO at the Community Foundation, serves as board treasurer. Jay R. Wagner, Esq., a shareholder at Stevens & Lee, serves as board secretary. They serve as officers but not as board members of the Community Foundation.

The Community Foundation manages about 350 charitable funds. Each year, those funds distribute scholarships and grants to support local students and assist a variety of nonprofit organizations and causes. Since 1994, the Community Foundation has awarded more than $60 million in grants and scholarships.

Women2Women, an organization dedicated to developing women leaders and connecting women from diverse backgrounds, announced Crystal Gilmore Harris as their 2020 Athena award recipient during their Digital Leadership Summit.

As a community advocate, Harris provides valuable service to improve the quality of life for others in the community. Her mission to guide young adults to a better path for the future through mentoring, leadership, teamwork, and self-care has helped many. She has been instrumental in building positive relationships with other community leaders which enables her to assist vulnerable families through community services.

In her role as Social Services Administrator at the Reading School District, she took initiative to streamline the placement of alternate education students by serving as their coordinator, which led to better outcomes of intervention for students and their parents.

She also recognized a need to mentor the boys and girls from the community through school extracurricular activities. As a result, she works as the head coach for the Reading High School cheerleaders. Understanding the needs of girls on the team, realizing that many of them lacked confidence and self-esteem, she established “Sashes and POMS Girl Scout Troop 1353,” the only cheerleading Girl Scout troop in Berks County.

Harris is a member of various civic and service organizations dedicated to the betterment of Reading which include NAACP, Sisters on a Mission, TLC Fore Reading, Kids That Ball, Inc., Blacktop Basketball, Inc., Reading Youth Athletics League, Voice UP and Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP).

She has received numerous awards and achievements including the 2019 Sigma Community Award, 2016 NAACP Community Service Award, 2015 ICARE Edith S. Key Guardian Angel Award, 2013 GSEP “TAKE THE LEAD” award, and 2013 Voices Honorary Coaches Award.

However, accomplishing so much was not always easy for Harris. “Being in those rooms wasn’t always easy or comfortable. I could see and feel the glares of some people who questioned why I was there. That only fueled me. Receiving this award reminds me to continue shining in those spaces … opening doors!” said Harris.

The Athena Leadership Model, developed through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, identifies eight distinct attributes that are reflective of women’s contributions to leadership: living authentically, learning constantly, advocating fiercely, acting courageously, fostering collaboration, building relationships, giving back and celebrating. These personal traits that are more intuitive to women and combined with the strongest aspects of traditional leadership – taking risks, assertiveness, hard work — prepare women to be successful leaders in the 21st century.