Helping Harvest Community Kitchen – Opening Spring 2025
Our City Reading Partnership Project
Helping Harvest Community Kitchen
229 Washington Street, Reading, PA
Addressing basic food needs and providing education and job training to our neighbors in
Berks and Schuylkill Counties.
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- A newly renovated 10,000 square foot facility for Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank, including a 7,000 square foot state-of-the-art commercial kitchen.
- Culinary Arts skill training will be provided to students and volunteers by highly trained professional chefs.
- This facility will allow Helping Harvest to accept bulk food donations, which will be used to prepare 2,500 meals weekly for distribution through our extensive pantry network.
- Helping Harvest’s client-facing staff will be more accessible to Reading residents, especially for assistance in applying for SNAP benefits.
Helping Harvest Community Kitchen – Latest News
Chef George Adams Announced as Helping Harvest’s Production Chef
March 2025
Helping Harvest is excited to welcome Chef George Adams as the Production Chef for the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen that is scheduled to open in spring 2025. Chef George joins Chef Amanda Richards, Director of Culinary Operations, and will be responsible for daily operations of the kitchen and preparing delicious and nutritious heat-and-eat ready meals for low-income seniors in Berks and Schuylkill Counties.
Chef George comes to Helping Harvest as an award-winning Certified Executive Chef (CEC) with extensive experience in fine dining, kitchen leadership and nutritional cuisine. He most recently served as executive chef at Dan’s at Green Hills in Reading where he earned the Best of Berks County – Fine Dining award four times in five years.
Prior to coming to Berks County, Chef George worked under several acclaimed chefs in kitchens in Philadelphia, PA and Tucson, AZ. He is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University’s culinary science program.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to use the skills I have learned to benefit other people and make a difference in local communities,” said Chef George.
“We are so excited to have Chef George join our Helping Harvest Community Kitchen team,” said Jay Worrall, Helping Harvest President. “His fine-dining experience will be invaluable as he designs and creates innovative menus for our heat-and-eat ready meals program, and his experience running a kitchen means he is well-equipped to oversee the daily operations of the Community Kitchen and its volunteers.”
Chef Amanda Richards Announced as Helping Harvest’s Director of Culinary Operations
July 2024
Helping Harvest is excited to welcome Chef Amanda Richards as the first Director of Culinary Operations for the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen that is on schedule to open in January 2025. Chef Amanda will lead the kitchen in preparing delicious and nutritious meals for seniors and families in Berks and Schuylkill Counties.
Chef Amanda comes to Reading from Philadelphia with 20 years of culinary experience and has two degrees from the Culinary Institute of America. She most recently was part of the faculty at the Community College of Philadelphia where she helped to empower culinary and hospitality students to achieve industry best practices through training, feedback and job placement.
Chef Amanda has worked with several food rescue organizations in and around the Philadelphia area to increase awareness of food access of the students on campus, as well as throughout her career.
“I am very proud and excited to be part of this amazing project at Helping Harvest. My career and passion have always been about providing freshly prepared meals to people regardless of income. The impact these meals will have for seniors in Berks and Schuylkill counties will be the highlight of my career.”
”We are beyond excited to have Chef Amanda join our team at Helping Harvest,” said Jay Worrall, Helping Harvest President. “For us to have found such an outstandingly qualified leader to launch the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen makes us even more certain that this project will be a game-changer for the way we serve food-insecure people in our community.”