Philabundance

THE RESTAURANTS and merchants of Rittenhouse Row are gathering again on Walnut Street this Saturday, and that means about 50,000 area residents and guests will be joining them for one of Center City's largest street fairs. The Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival will close Walnut from Broad to 19th streets (from noon until 5 p.m.) and feature food, fashion, entertainment and fun for children. It's big. It's crowded. It's fun. And this year there's a lot of new stuff. * Dunkin' Donuts will be giving out free iced coffee on the 1400 block of Walnut.

Bill Clark, the president and executive director of Philabundance, the area's largest hunger relief organization, estimates that 900,000 people in the Delaware Valley are at-risk of hunger. With that staggering statistic in mind, the Phillies and Citizens Bank announced a hunger relief initiative called Phans Feeding Families. This initiative began on Thursday and will culminate during the Sunday July 31 Phillies home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with the aim to unite the Phillies community in support of hunger relief.

About 30 people already were waiting in the chilly drizzle when Eugene Dickerson, 37, arrived at the Lindenwold PATCO station to help distribute free produce and other items through Philabundance's Fresh for All program. A half-hour later, still 30 minutes before food would be passed out, the line in the parking lot had grown to about 200 people. "Normally, we have even more than that," said Dickerson, an out-of-work chef who volunteers every Saturday for the 1:30 p.m. event.

An improving economy is supposed to benefit all, but staff members of the food-recycling charity Philabundance know that in Delaware County, as elsewhere, despite recent general prosperity, many people are still struggling. The Philadelphia-based nonprofit recently extended its Delaware County food donations beyond the larger groups it has supplied for many years. Census Bureau estimates for 1997, the latest year available, show that 8.5 percent of the county's 540,000 residents and 13 percent of its children live in poverty.

PhilAbundance, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that provides fresh foods to homeless shelters and soup kitchens, will expand its service in Bucks County by 300 percent, starting this week. The program, which collects leftover food from restaurants and distributes it to the poor, has been supplying three shelters in the county. This week, it will begin supplying seven additional sites. Over the next 12 months, the organization hopes to deliver about 100,000 pounds of food to Bucks County shelters.

Philabundance has received about $225,000 in donations to fund a children's milk program it had planned to cut, the region's largest hunger-relief agency announced yesterday. Most of the money for 18 after-school and day-care agencies serving 1,045 children comes from a single donor who requested anonymity, said Bill Clark, agency president and executive director. The reinstated program will cost $100,000 a year, and Clark said the donations would be used to keep it going at least two years.

By day, Jannie L. Blackwell is an oh-so-serious Philadelphia City Council member, known for helping the homeless people who show up at her office and for overseeing her West Philadelphia district like a fiefdom. But Thursday night, she was "Jannie from Cheyney. " Clad in a black-and-white Adidas track suit, bulky gold chain, and sunglasses, the councilwoman - a graduate of Cheyney University - and several staffers did their own version of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight. " "And in conclusion / I'd just like to say / I'm Jannie from Cheyney / have a blessed day," she rapped.

Like most hunger-relief programs, Philabundance has distributed whatever donated food has come its way. Too often that has meant plenty of potatoes and lettuce, and not enough kiwis and grapes - a good recipe for filling the belly, but not good enough to meet daily nutritional needs. In a pioneering effort to fill dietary gaps, the Philadelphia agency has forged a partnership with several businesses to guarantee specific food will be available on a regular basis. It represents a major shift from the usual business practice of giving away food that cannot be sold.

WITH THE HOLIDAYS approaching, my thoughts are on eating good food with great beer. As usual, I have a bunch of suggestions. But first, I want to make a pitch to support those who don't have enough to eat. This season, I'm partnering with Philabundance, the city's food bank, to drive hunger from our community. It's a very simple program that I'm calling Eat, Drink & Be Generous, and it works like this: The next time you buy a sixpack, I want you to plunk down an equal amount to help buy food for the needy.

THE RESTAURANTS and merchants of Rittenhouse Row are gathering again on Walnut Street this Saturday, and that means about 50,000 area residents and guests will be joining them for one of Center City's largest street fairs. The Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival will close Walnut from Broad to 19th streets (from noon until 5 p.m.) and feature food, fashion, entertainment and fun for children. It's big. It's crowded. It's fun. And this year there's a lot of new stuff. * Dunkin' Donuts will be giving out free iced coffee on the 1400 block of Walnut.

* Wood is the symbol for the fifth anniversary, so Devil's Den (1148 S. 11th St., 215-339-0855, devilsdenphilly.com ), the craft-beer pub celebrating its fifth roll around the barrel, plays off that theme with a wood-aged-drafts list and themed tapas menu at a birthday party starting at 1 p.m. Saturday. Get $1 off drafts till 5 p.m. The tap list includes Dochter Van De Korenaar Embrasse Peated Oak Aged, De Struise Pannepot and Stillwater Red Wine Barrel Aged Debauched. * Eat at a participating area Chipotle ( chipotle.com )

By day, Jannie L. Blackwell is an oh-so-serious Philadelphia City Council member, known for helping the homeless people who show up at her office and for overseeing her West Philadelphia district like a fiefdom. But Thursday night, she was "Jannie from Cheyney. " Clad in a black-and-white Adidas track suit, bulky gold chain, and sunglasses, the councilwoman - a graduate of Cheyney University - and several staffers did their own version of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight. " "And in conclusion / I'd just like to say / I'm Jannie from Cheyney / have a blessed day," she rapped.

FOR THOSE OF US still panicked over the possible loss of Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Hostess cupcakes, here's something to consider: Imagine how panicked you'd be over the possible loss of milk, bread, meat and cereal. Hard to imagine for most of us, but more and more families in Philadelphia and the region confront that scarcity every day. And as we prepare to celebrate the holiday of abundance, it's a good time to get real about how many in the region can't celebrate in quite the same way. It's also a good time to get real following months of rhetoric and bombast we've heard leading up to the latest presidential election about how more people need to break their dependence on government.

Friday Tackling epilepsy A free party will celebrate the launch of the website www.LivingWellwithEpilepsy.com during Epilepsy Awareness Month. The party will feature a performance from Grammy-nominated singer Jann Klose. The website is an expansion by a group of students at Penn's Wharton School of a local blog geared to educating people and reducing the stigma associated with epilepsy. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3733 Spruce St. Time: 6:30 p.m. Information: www.LivingWellwithEpilepsy.com . Friday-Saturday Sergei and Sergei The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève, with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale, will perform Sergei Prokofiev's score for Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 movie masterpiece Alexander Nevsky . The film, which will be screened during the performance, tells the story of Nevsky's 13th-century victory over an invading army of Teutonic Crusaders.

WITH THE HOLIDAYS approaching, my thoughts are on eating good food with great beer. As usual, I have a bunch of suggestions. But first, I want to make a pitch to support those who don't have enough to eat. This season, I'm partnering with Philabundance, the city's food bank, to drive hunger from our community. It's a very simple program that I'm calling Eat, Drink & Be Generous, and it works like this: The next time you buy a sixpack, I want you to plunk down an equal amount to help buy food for the needy.

Firefighters treated like NFL refs Friday's editorial "NFL labor dispute sent message beyond football" said: "No matter the business, in the end it doesn't pay to cut costs by diluting your products's quality. " That could very well have been written about the ongoing dispute between the city and the Philadelphia firefighters and paramedics' union. The only thing protecting the quality of their service is the pride and professionalism of the firefighters and paramedics. Even that hose will eventually spring a leak.

The A&P was just three blocks from where Joseph M. Bail Jr. grew up in downtown Chester. A Food Fair was within about three blocks of the Bail residence, as was the Edgmont Beef Co., whose orange trucks would deliver groceries right to doorsteps. That was 50 years ago. Today, Delaware County's only city has nothing even approaching the level of a "grocery store. " "It's just shocking," said Bail, 62, now the city's police commissioner. At a time when food-market wars are raging in some suburbs, Chester transcends the government definition of "food desert," said Marty Meloche, a food-marketing professor at St. Joseph's University.

* Free bacon burgers. Knew this would grab your attention. Wendy's is varying its Baconator theme with the new Son of Baconator, a slightly smaller version (700 calories vs. 900, for instance) that will be handed out from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday during a promotional event at 1101 Arch St. While supplies last, of course. * The Brandywine Valley Wine Trail 10th Annual Harvest Festival kicks off a little early this year with the "Think Pink, Drink Pink" campaign to support breast-cancer charities.