Volunteers glean farm fields to provide Chester County Food Bank with produce

A 6-year-old girl from Downingtown struggled to avoid making sauce as she balanced a box containing the fruits of her labors: dozens of gleaming, red tomatoes.

Minutes later, a 4-year-old boy, also from Downingtown, wrestled with a cornstalk before triumphantly snapping off a resistant ear.

The children were part of a picking posse of about 30 who descended on a field in Westtown Township. Their goal: Provide fresh produce via the Chester County Food Bank to a population that belies the county's well-publicized affluence.

This year, Forbes magazine ranked Chester County, with a per-capita income of nearly $85,000, as the 24th-wealthiest county in the nation. Forbes.com touted it as one of America's best places to raise a family. And the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute ranked it Pennsylvania's healthiest county.

Such accolades, however, don't benefit a growing population of disadvantaged.

"It's not something people here think about . . . but the needs are great and have increased during the recession," said Robert D. McNeil, a real estate magnate and board chairman of the Chester County Food Bank.

The organization was established in March 2009 when the CARES Food Network, the former distribution clearinghouse for 27 food cupboards and 38 meal sites in the county, faced bankruptcy.

Reports on poverty by nonprofit groups show that making ends meet is more expensive in Chester County than in most U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. A Chester County adult with one preschooler, for example, needs $51,853 a year to meet basic needs, the most of any county in Pennsylvania.

McNeil, a member of the philanthropic clan whose ancestors founded McNeil Laboratories, finds such statistics unacceptable. And he has some high-powered allies on his 16-member board who share his passion to curb poverty.

In less than two years, the group has become an independent nonprofit, bought a warehouse, added commercial equipment such as flash-freezers and dehydrators to extend the growing season, and expanded a gleaning program that relies on volunteers to pick produce.

"It's just astounding what they have accomplished, and I believe everyone who's been on the board has contributed," Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone said.