Easton Area Neighborhood Center chooses new executive director with 'trifecta of skills'

EASTON, Pa. — Easton Area Neighborhood Center has selected a new executive director eager to address poverty, hunger and homelessness in the region.

Alison Czapp has been confirmed as the new executive director of the group colloquially known as The Neighborhood Center, whose mission is to “advance social and economic justice and advocate for the rights of residents with limited resources from the Easton Area and Northampton County.”

Czapp has been described as a passionate local food and antipoverty advocate who approaches nonprofit work with optimism and tenacity.

Just a few weeks into her position, Czapp said things are going “really well” with The Neighborhood Center.

“The staff here is amazing; the work is really impactful and meaningful," she said.

"I've been familiar with The Neighborhood Center's work for most of my career. Here in the Lehigh Valley, it’s a really strong and important organization to be a part of."

Czapp most recently served as the associate executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania.

In that position, she managed charitable food distribution and programming over a six-county region and worked with other Feeding America food banks to “move the needle on ending hunger in America.”

Czapp also oversaw The Seed Farm, an agricultural business incubator outside Emmaus, and worked to align local food programs with the charitable food network during her time with Second Harvest.

'Build resiliency across the community'

During her time with Second Harvest, the organization doubled its food distribution to neighbors experiencing food insecurity, including large investments in local foods for neighbors.

“Alison brings her knowledge about food and food distribution as well as her knowledge about health policies to her new position," Easton Area Neighborhood Center Board President Isla Long said in a statement.

"She will build on our current work combating poverty, hunger and homelessness, including our award-winning food pantry, the Easton Urban Farm, RoofOver transitional housing program, and utility assistance programs.

“Alison has the trifecta of skills the board was looking for in an executive director: integrity, energy and servant leadership.”

Czapp said her passion has always been food systems, which is how she originally came to learn about The Neighborhood Center while working at Buy Fresh, Buy Local of the Greater Lehigh Valley.

From that perspective, she has embraced addressing food insecurity at its source, she said.

“I love the aspect that we have emergency food here, we have the urban farm, which is the only true urban farm in the Lehigh Valley, [and there is] amazing programming that surrounds that,” Czapp said.

“But as I got more into my work at the food bank, there's sort of a trend among all food banks across the nation: looking at root causes of poverty.

"We know that hunger doesn't exist in a vacuum, so it was really just an amazing opportunity for me to step into this role at an organization that's doing a lot of that root cause work and looking to build resiliency across the community, not just in one sector.”

'Build resiliency across the community'

According to Feeding America, in 2022, Northampton County saw 10.7% of its population, then about 33,750 people, experiencing food insecurity.

The state Agriculture Department said 16.8% of children in Pennsylvania were food insecure as of 2021.

Looking to the future, Czapp said among the biggest issues to address is food deserts throughout the Lehigh Valley.

That's particularly true in Easton, where most people are forced to commute outside the city to shop for groceries — especially fresh produce.

“I think that work that's being done at the urban farm, as well as with other community gardens and, of course, the very strong local food system that exists in the city of Easton, all of these things combined is really what's going to provide solutions for people,” she said.

“And so, to that end, I'm just really looking forward to working with other organizations and collaborating. I approach nonprofit work from a very non-competitive place.

"Everyone's doing great work, and everyone needs to see, you know, what is their piece and how do they fit into the broader solutions for the community.”