Westmoreland County Food Bank doubles number of Summer Food Service program sites

The Westmoreland County Food Bank had a ground-level picture of how the covid-19 pandemic affected food security for families in the region.

Its staff members worked food distribution centers where people waited hours lined-up in cars to receive a box of food. That is a big part of why the food bank’s Summer Food Service program will be operating with double the number of sites this year as opposed to 2020.

“We had nine last year, and this year we have more than 20 sites,” said food bank CEO Jennifer Miller. Some of the new sites are private locations like day care facilities, but the Murrysville Christian Concern Thrift Shop, Kirk S. Nevin Arena in Greensburg and Gate of Heaven in Monessen have been added to existing public sites in Greensburg, Latrobe, Jeannette, Arnold and New Kensington.

“I would say a lot of it has to do with the pandemic and the community’s desire to help out kids in their own neighborhoods,” Miller said, adding that, in Murrysville, thrift shop owners reached out about serving as a program site this summer.

“About a year ago, we started a program called the Community Kitchen,” said Daniel Plance, manager for the nonprofit Murrysville Christian Concern. “(Export) firemen allowed us to use the kitchen in the their social hall once a month to run the program and offer food to anyone who needed it.”

The pandemic forced the Community Kitchen to close, reopening later as a takeout-only service.

“During that, we were seeing a lot of families with kids, and a lot of seniors,” Plance said. “And, when we saw the food bank was looking for additional sites, we decided to get involved.”

Plance said the thrift shop site has 16 children enrolled, and is looking for more.

“We’re serving on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and families have to be registered,” he said. “What’s really nice about adding it this year is that we’re just about the only site in this part of the county. The next closest is Greensburg.”

The Summer Food Service program provided nearly 21,000 meals, serving more than 500 children per day, during the course of the pandemic.

Miller said individual sites handle administering the program, and those involved undergo extensive training on food safety and service.

“These programs will be ‘grab-and-go,’ the same as during the pandemic,” Miller said. “They will serve breakfast, and then lunches will be either a sandwich or something frozen that recipients can microwave.”

For more information, call the food bank at 724-468-8660.