The community is invited to donate nonperishable food items for both humans and pets during the Senior Expo being held at FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the Reading Fightin Phils, on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the "Stuff a Bus" food drive.

On that day, a Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority (BARTA) bus will be on-site accepting donations for Helping Harvest's food assistance programs and Humane Pennsylvania.

"BARTA, which is the bus transportation company in Reading, will bring one of their 35- or 40-foot buses to the stadium," said Lauren Henderson Pignetti, director of development for Humane Pennsylvania. "Folks going to the Senior Expo are being asked to bring human food for Helping Harvest and pet food for Humane Pennsylvania. The idea is to fill the bus. This is a good opportunity to help both organizations all at one location."

All food, as well as personal care items, will be used by Helping Harvest to aid Berks County and Schuylkill County residents. Each year, more than 100,000 people receive assistance from the agency's fresh food bank. For more details, visit http://www.helpingharvest.org.

The pet food will be distributed through the Spike's Pet Pantry program, which serves residents of Berks and Lancaster counties. "We will have our box truck on-site. Once the event is over, we will bring donations back to the warehouse," Pignetti said. "Ideally, we would like people to bring bags of dry dog food and dry cat food. We will have folks on hand to help unload donations from the cars and into the bus."

According to Pignetti, from January through July, Spike's Pet Pantry has given away more than 100,000 pounds of pet food to those in need. More information is available at http://www.humanepa.org/healthypets/spikes-pet-pantry.

She added that everyone is invited to donate, whether or not they attend the Senior Expo.

This year marks the 21st Senior Expo, which is presented by Berks Encore, a nonprofit agency serving the needs of Berks County residents age 50 and older. The event was moved+ to the outdoor stadium for the first time in 2021.

More than 75 vendors will be in attendance at the expo distributing information about their services. There will also be health screenings, educational seminars and live entertainment, including a performance by Jeff Krick Sr., an Elvis impersonator. Stadium concessions will also be open offering hot dogs and soda.

FirstEnergy Stadium is located at 1900 Centre Ave. (Route 61 South), Reading. For more details, visit http://www.berksencore.org/events/senior-expo.