Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank announces Child Hunger Hero Awards winners

It’s often been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, many children often go without it and show up to school hungry.

In fact, nearly 100,000 area children go to bed worried about their next meal and one in five live with hunger, according to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

But now, schools and community sponsors are making the extra effort to serve meals through the Child Hunger Hero Awards Program (CHH) and this month the Food Bank is identifying and recognizing them.

This year’s CHH award winners were evaluated on their efforts to provide school meals, afterschool meals, summer food, weekend backpacks and school pantry programs. Many of the schools involved have overcome serious challenges throughout the pandemic, including staff shortages, food supply issues and feeding children during remote learning.

“We are so excited to be celebrating our Child Hunger Heroes who have thought creatively and worked tirelessly to ensure that children in our community have enough healthy food to eat,” said Karen Dreyer, Food Bank director of child nutrition programs.

“They have shown up and not given up despite many challenges, and they have used their superpowers to strengthen our schools and communities.”

The Food Bank has announced this month’s Child Hunger Hero Award gold winners are the Pittsburgh Public Schools, Greater Johnstown School District, Cambria County Child Development Corporation, East End United Community Center, Trinity Area School District, Beaver County YMCA and YMCA of Indiana County.

“We’re just thrilled,” said Ebony Pugh, director of public relations for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. “Our team over at Food Services has gone to great efforts to ensure that students get that fuel they need to be effective in the classroom. We know that everyone doesn’t get the opportunity to get breakfast at home. At the Pittsburgh Public Schools, we provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to students through the community eligibility program. And we also assist with snacks too.”

Silver winners will be announced next week.