Fighting food insecurity in Pennsylvania is a complex and unrelenting undertaking. Every supporter we meet along the way brings us one step closer to ending hunger among our communities — we couldn’t do this without you! It’s exciting to connect and collaborate with like-minded folks as we simultaneously celebrate PA food culture, amplify the stories of artisans and makers, and tackle food insecurity.
One brand to recently join our efforts is extra-exciting, because they are a homegrown company that we’ve admired for a long time: Tröegs Independent Brewing! Together, PA Eats and Tröegs are teaming up to empower Pennsylvania’s food-insecure, to help them cook fresh, healthy and affordable meals. We are so grateful for, and fired up about, this unique partnership!
Tröegs Co-Founders Chris and John Trogner
“When we look at potential partnerships, the first question we ask is: Why?” says Tröegs’ co-founding brother Chris Trogner. “With PA Eats, the answer came easily. We started working in earnest with Pennsylvania ingredients back in 2002 with the debut of holiday favorite Mad Elf. Today, we buy about 25,000 pounds of local honey and 100,000 pounds of Pennsylvania-grown barley every year.
“We also brew and cook with a long list of locally grown ingredients. For instance, Pennsylvania long-neck pumpkins for Master of Pumpkins, which we first brewed in 2013, are planted and grown just for us at Strite’s Orchard, less than 10 miles from the brewery. We bring in about 3,000 pounds after harvest, and our kitchen team cleans and roasts the whole lot before handing them off to our brewers,” Trogner says.
Behind the scenes at Dish Works studio producing Tröegs Nourish PA content
Thanks to a generous $5,000 donation from this Hershey-based brewery (which also happens to make one of our favorite crushable beers, Sunshine Pils), PA Eats will further our work with Feeding Pennsylvania to stock food pantries. We will also collaborate with chefs from the Tröegs Scratch Kitchen on recipes and videos as part of our Nourish PA series. These accessible educational resources aim to support and empower everyone who is taking home ingredients from local food pantries by providing healthy, simple and affordable recipes.
A sneak peek of Tröegs chili for Nourish PA
Feeding PA helps member food banks across PA secure food and other resources they need to reduce hunger in our state. With over 2,700 PA food pantries actively distributing food, there’s a crucial need for educational resources that can be used to teach food pantry clients how to create nourishing meals with the food they receive. With our powers combined, PA Eats and Tröegs are gearing up to produce delicious recipes with seasonal produce and flavors in mind, like hearty chili packed with beans and butternut squash.
“Tröegs Independent Brewing is an incredible Pa. company and a perfect partner for PA Eats,” said Tom Gavin, Board President of PA Eats. “We share respect for Pennsylvania agriculture and producers. We thank them for their support and their commitment to providing our community members with access to food.”
Our first collaborative video with Tröegs is dropping next week! Stay tuned to see more of the exciting results of the PA Eats and Tröegs partnership.
- Beer photo & Trogner brothers photo: Tröegs Independent Brewing
- All other images: Dish Works
