North Huntingdon church taking food distribution to new level

Phyllis Karasek watched as Calvary Church volunteers stacked 30 boxes of non-perishable food in her garage on Friday, a temporary holding spot until she could deliver the boxes of groceries to her fellow residents of West Hempfield Townhouses in Hempfield.

“It’s is a huge help. We have a lot of people out of work in this complex and we have a lot of families with multiple children,” said Karasek, who has been unemployed from her job as a supervisor at the J.C. Penney Co. store at Westmoreland Mall since mid-March. The complex operated by the Westmoreland County Housing Authority has about 50 units.

Taking about 250 boxes of food to Karasek’s complex and to residents of Irwin Manor and residential personal care homes was just part of a massive food distribution effort by Calvary Church of North Huntingdon.

It had the ambitious goal of giving 1,000 boxes of food to needy residents in the Norwin area. Throughout the day, residents — those who had registered and those who had not — were able to drive up to the church parking lot along Pennsylvania Avenue and get a box of food.

“We’re giving them a little bit of help at a difficult time,” said Nick Poole, church pastor.

Calvary Church usually provides 50 boxes of food to needy families on Fridays. But they decided two weeks ago to try to give way 20 times as many on the first Friday of the month.

They got enough food from the Westmoreland County Food Bank in Delmont to fill 1,000 boxes, Poole said. The challenge was to separate the food into carry-out boxes, which they had hoped to finish by Friday afternoon.

The church had raised enough money and food donations to pack 250 boxes of food that they acquired on their own, Poole said. That enabled some people to get an extra box. They also were able to give the recipients a $25 food voucher to a Giant Eagle supermarket.

“It’s been amazing how the church and the (Norwin) community has rallied around this effort,” Poole said.

One of the challenges in getting the food to people in need was getting the word out, Poole said.

Amber Beck, who oversees Calvary Church’s Calvary Cares food distribution, could not be reached for comment Friday night on how many boxes of food were distributed.

Realizing the state is starting to lift some of the coronavirus restrictions on the economy, Poole said they were focusing their efforts on “one big push to get us to the finish line.”

Karasek is hoping that Poole’s prediction regarding the end of the economic shutdown being near is correct.

“We’re looking forward to getting back to work,” she said.