As the holidays approach, nonprofits see a growing need to address food scarcity
By Sono Motoyama / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On a recent Saturday, East End Cooperative Ministry set up on an East Liberty side street to accept drive-through donations of food and monetary contributions for the holidays. It was the second time it had held the event.
Last year, the drive was able to collect the equivalent of three to four days’ worth of purchases with canned food donations and monetary contributions of more than $4,000, according to EECM community food service manager James Soffietti.
Soffietti said that EECM had seen the need to create the special holiday drive in 2023 because of food price increases, which were not met by consumers’ salaries and benefits.
“More and more people on the economic spectrum are feeling the crunch,” he said.
The organization has seen many new working-class clients who don’t have enough to eat because of inflation. They are joined, Soffietti said, by an influx of new immigrants who are “desperately relying on us as a good landing point to get their feet underneath them as they enter Pittsburgh culture.”
One of the biggest challenges EECM staff faces is simply communicating with the variety of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and South America, he said.
East End Cooperative Ministry, which offers a variety of community services, currently serves about 400 individual households per month with its pantry services, providing essential foods, such as produce, dairy and meat. It sources the items from such partner stores and organizations as Sam’s Club, Target, Whole Foods and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
EECM also serves between 7,500 and 8,000 community lunches each month at its East Liberty facility.
Though it might seem surprising that nonprofits are seeing greater need for aid now than during the pandemic, Soffietti said that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, EECM had access to local and federal aid that has since ended.
Charlese McKinney, chief program officer of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, agreed that she is seeing a greater need.
“We are actually distributing more food now than we did at the height of the pandemic,” she said. “Just in the past few months, we’ve seen a 27% increase in the amount of food that we distributed during the same period last year.”
In its last fiscal year, she said, the food bank had provided, in cooperation with more than 1,000 community partners, 48 million meals to the southwestern Pennsylvania area that it serves. This was a 16% increase over the previous year.
McKinney noted that one in eight people in the food bank’s service area are food insecure, including one in six children.
Besides inflation, she noted the impact of the end, in 2023, of pandemic-era federal assistance such as emergency allotments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
After the curtailing of the extra SNAP benefits, “the very next month we saw an increase in people coming to us for food assistance,” she said.
Even though inflation is now abating, it takes time for families in hardship to recover, she said.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank doesn’t generally hold special initiatives for holidays, but Thanksgiving is an exception, McKinney said, because it is so food-centered.
It sponsors local KDKA-TV’s Turkey Fund, which provides gift cards so families can shop for their Thanksgiving needs.
How to give, get help
Albright Community Thanksgiving Eve Dinner, held Nov. 27, 5-7 p.m., at the First United Methodist Church, 5401 Centre Ave., offers a free meal to anyone who might like to attend, no registration required. Donations are accepted at albrightpgh.com.
East End Cooperative Ministry, 6125 Harvard St., accepts monetary donations and offers a volunteer sign-up sheet through eecm.org. Its food pantry is open 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. It serves free community lunches, which are also available for takeout, noon-12:45 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, 1 N. Linden St., Duquesne, accepts donations and offers information about volunteering (including organizing your own food drive) via pittsburghfoodbank.org. Those in need of food can consult the website for resources or call 412-460-3663 ext. 655; there is also a free on-site food market.
KDKA-TV Turkey Fund donations, which help families in need during the holiday season, can be taken to any PNC Bank branch, or sent by text, mail or through the KDKA website. Check the station’s website for further information. If you are in need of food, the station recommends dialing 211 from your phone or visiting 211.org.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, 800 Avila Court, encourages all mass attendees in the parish (including Incarnation of the Lord, Observatory Hill; St. Athanasius, West View; St. Sebastian, Ross; and St. Teresa of Avila, Perrysville) to bring nonperishable foods to masses Nov. 16-17.
Items will be distributed by the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. Donations of $10 will also be accepted for food certificates for needy families by placing envelopes marked “Thanksgiving certificate” in the collection basket that same weekend.
The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh Turkey Trot, in its 34th year, is held on Thanksgiving Day, and supports the YMCA food pantry programs and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Register at pittsburghymca.org/turkeytrot.