Got Milk? FirstEnergy Foundation Supports Initiative to Fill Glasses with Nutritious Drink throughout Pennsylvania
A tall, cold glass of milk: a simple pleasure many of us take for granted. Yet one in six children and one in eight adults facing hunger in Pennsylvania may not have access to this nutritious beverage.
That’s why the FirstEnergy Foundation has stepped up again this year to donate $25,000 to support Fill a Glass with Hope®, the first statewide charitable fresh milk program in the nation celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year. The FirstEnergy Foundation has provided financial support to this Pennsylvania program for nearly a decade with grants totaling $200,000.
Since its inception in 2015, Fill a Glass with Hope has helped Pennsylvania’s food banks provide more than 40 million servings of milk to families in need across the state. The program is a partnership between Feeding Pennsylvania, the American Dairy Association Northeast and the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association.
According to Feeding Pennsylvania, milk is one of the most requested items at Pennsylvania food banks, but people tend to donate non-perishable items instead.
“FirstEnergy Pennsylvania serves more than 2 million customers across the Commonwealth, extending beyond providing safe and reliable electricity,” said John Hawkins, FirstEnergy’s President of Pennsylvania. “The FirstEnergy Foundation is proud to sponsor this year's initiative, which supplies tens of thousands of servings of fresh milk annually to Pennsylvania food banks for families in need, including those within our service area.”
The FirstEnergy Foundation recently joined other organizations to collectively donate nearly $182,000 to the Fill a Glass with Hope initiative in 2025, an achievement celebrated at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg on Jan. 3.
Hawkins said supporting this initiative aligns well with FirstEnergy’s commitment to support food banks throughout the company’s service area with dollars, food donations and employee volunteers.
Feeding Pennsylvania promotes and aids its member food banks to secure food and other resources to reduce hunger and food insecurities in their communities across the Commonwealth. To learn more about this program or provide support, please visit http://www.feedingpa.org/support-our-mission.
“With hunger at an all-time high and with families struggling to buy food while managing essential expenses, I am extremely proud of the impact our dairy farmers and partners make in helping Pennsylvanians put food on the table,” said Dave Smith, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association. “Together, we are providing crucial nutritious fresh milk to Fill a Glass with Hope and Pennsylvanians who utilize food banks and pantries”
To learn more about FirstEnergy’s community involvement initiatives, visit Community (firstenergycorp.com).