Meet the Women Powering FPP’s Food Donation Program

Each week, a group of women, led by Susan Vineberg, meets to make homemade, nutritious dinners. These meals are the foundation of the four-year partnership between Women’s Connection and Family Promise of Philadelphia. This partnership started in 2021, when the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic became clear to Vineberg.

“I wanted to do something to address food insecurity, because we weren’t really doing anything about that,” Vineberg said. She launched Cooking for a Cause and recruited volunteers among the thousands of Woman’s Connection members.

Vineberg’s initial outreach received an overwhelming response. She was able to establish several groups of volunteers who meet once a month to cook dozens of meals. Four years later, FPP still receives more than 80 meals per month to distribute to families in need.

“We’re just really happy to be doing something,” Vineberg said of the women who cook meals for FPP families. “We want to make sure that when families come to Family Promise of Philadelphia, they leave with a good feeling in their hearts, knowing that they are able to feed their families home cooked meals.”

Women’s Connection has instilled this feeling in countless families, donating more than 1,000 meals each year. FPP offers meals to every family that walks through our doors, helping us provide wraparound support to each struggling family.

Woman’s Connection is also working to make our community healthier, one meal at a time. “We really try to make it healthy,” Vineberg says, by including vegetables and protein in each dinner, helping poor children get the nutrients they need for strong development.

A single mother recently came to FPP in need of food. She was expecting to receive TV dinners. When she saw that our staff was packing her a bag of dinners filled with pasta, fresh vegetables, and chicken, she started crying. She was overwhelmed with gratitude that her kids would be receiving home cooked meals.

We thank Woman’s Connection for spreading love throughout our community.