Food insecurity affects approximately 1.7 million Pennsylvanians, including one in six children, according to a 2023 report from Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and meal programs. The state's charitable food networks support over 1.5 million residents annually, underscoring the urgent need and the crucial role of food banks and community partners, according to Abdullah Konak, distinguished professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State Berks.
To address these challenges, Penn State, in collaboration with the Helping Harvest Food Bank, is hosting the Food Security and Access for Healthy Futures Symposium: Strengthening University-Community Partnerships through Participatory Research on Friday, April 24, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub, Penn State University Park.
Advance registration is required for the event, which is free and open to the public; breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Building on insights from previous participatory research, the event will emphasize collaborative innovation grounded in analytics, operations research and decision sciences, including responsible use of artificial intelligence. The symposium aims to bring together University researchers, members of community-based organizations and other practitioners to collaborate and develop pathways and data-driven tools for strengthening local food access within charitable food distribution systems.
The symposium will feature two keynote speakers, a community panel, and lightning presentations that will spotlight Penn State and community researchers.
Keynote speakers include Julie Simmons Ivy, department chair and Vivian L. Carpenter Collegiate Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, and Lauren Davis, professor of industrial systems and engineering at North Carolina A&T University.
Community panelists include Shila Ulrich, chief executive officer of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank; Gregory D. Hall, chief executive officer of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania; Jennifer Brillhart, chief executive officer of Hunger Free York, York County Food Bank; Ryan Hassler, former chair of the board of directors, Helping Harvest Food Bank; and Jay Worrall, president of Helping Harvest Food Bank.
Event attendees will also be able to participate workshops and co-creation sessions that are designed to catalyze new partnerships between faculty and community organizations; identify research priorities that align with local needs; co-develop proposal concepts and longer-term funding strategies; and build lasting relationships that strengthen research capacity.
The symposium is part of and funded by the Food Bank Operations Optimization: Data-driven Societal Impact Approach (FOODSIA) project within the Inter-Institutional Partnerships for Diversifying Research (IPDR) program in the computational and data science track (ADOPTS), 2024-2026, as well as the AI-Enabled Community Data Framework to Address Food Insecurity Data Gaps in Berks and Schuylkill Counties, supported by the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses - Community Impact and Engagement (CIE) Seed Funding Program, 2026.
About the FOODSIA project
The FOODSIA project is supported through the IPDR program within the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), which provides seed funding to foster new research collaborations. The project brings together researchers from Penn State Berks and North Carolina A&T University to address operational and data challenges in charitable food systems using predictive analytics and operations research. The research team, in collaboration with the Helping Harvest Food Bank analyzes donation, demand and logistics data to develop decision-support models and dashboards that can improve food distribution and access.
