July 27, 2023

Believe it or not, in a few months we’ll be preparing for the holidays! And during that time, we always focus on ensuring those in need have a happy holiday season. However, FirstEnergy employees help feed the hungry year-round – whether it’s through our annual Harvest for Hunger campaign or individual volunteer events throughout our service area.

A group of employees in our JCP&L service area volunteered to help the hungry for their United Way Day of Caring event. The employees spent the day at Interfaith Food Pantry in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Our volunteers worked outside in the rain sorting through fresh vegetables and fruit then loading it into the clients’ cars for their weekly food collection.

Earlier this summer, Fort Martin Power Station employees in our Mon Power service area held a Cram the Van event for the Raymond Wolfe Center’s food pantry in Kingwood, West Virginia. Our volunteers restocked the food pantry with about 2,000 pounds of food, and it was delivered just in time to help bridge the gap in meals for some families that have children home on summer break. The effort to collect food items at the power plant began months before summer as part of FirstEnergy’s Harvest for Hunger campaign in April.

“To think a child may go hungry simply because they are not in school is heartbreaking,” said Kameron Miller-Hickey, Fort Martin engineer III and food drive volunteer. “We recognize that families in our local community struggle with hunger, especially during the summer months, and we want to be part of the solution.” And the food pantry was incredibly grateful for our employees’ generosity. “The donation from Fort Martin comes at the perfect time for us to be able to help fill that gap for families during the summer,” said Alix Evans, Raymond Wolfe’s outreach coordinator. “This food also helps us address increased need due to a recent post-pandemic reduction in the amount of food stamps given to low-income families.”

Kameron sits in front of the food collected during Fort Martin’s Cram the Van event.