Kensington Mission Struggles To Meet Needs Of Homeless, Hungry
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - With the gentrification of Fishtown and Northern Liberties, the poor and hungry are being pushed into Kensington -- aggravating an already struggling population.
With the number of hungry and homeless in Kensington up, there's more of a need for food pantries and other crucial services.
"Fixing up of Fishtown, and Kensington and Frankford Ave, it's pushing out the poor housing, so a lot of people can't even afford to rent a house any more, it's getting worse, not better," says Jim Snider, director of the Cast Your Cares Ministry.
Snider has lived in Kensington for nine years. He says visiting missionaries are stunned by the need:
"We have other missionaries who come from Mexico and Africa, even Cuba and Puerto Rico, and they're like this is very similar if not worse than some of these third world countries and it's right here in America. And people don't realize that there's people struggling with food."
Snider and his family operate a food pantry, handing out 80-bags of groceries every week. On Saturdays, they provide up to 400 meals to the hungry.
To help, contact the ministry.