Our Commitment to Food Justice

At Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank our mission is to leverage the power of community to achieve lasting solutions to hunger and its root causes. 

We envision a purposeful effort where community members and organizations join forces to ensure that everyone has reliable access to food, resources, and support, allowing them to fully participate in society. 

We are committed to focusing on those who disproportionately experience food insecurity in our service area. To address this issue, we will partner more collaboratively with community stakeholders, donors, volunteers, local organizations, community leaders, and, most importantly, individuals with lived experiences of hunger. We must continue to educate ourselves, amplify the voices of those affected, and learn from their experiences. 

We believe in the power of collective and radical changes to the systems, programs, and practices that cause and perpetuate food insecurity and hunger in our communities. 

This is our commitment to Food Justice

Our commitment to Food Justice

We believe that everyone has the human right to equitable access to nutritious and culturally relevant food that enables them to thrive. Together, we will boldly challenge harmful systems to advance social justice. As one of many organizations committed to this cause, we advocate for businesses growth in community neighborhoods, build inclusive and equitable communities, and represent the communities we serve within our organization. By pulling together accessible resources, we can make meaningful changes in our organization and the 11 counties we serve. 

Understanding Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life. Data from the USDA indicate that most people living in poverty are food insecure and most people facing hunger live above the federal poverty line ($31,200 for a family of four as of January 2024). 

It is critical that we continue to educate and bring awareness of the complex nature of food insecurity. We must operate with the knowledge that food insecurity is not primarily the result of personal choices. We know that one major root cause of hunger is social inequalities which create and perpetuate the conditions that sustain food insecurity. Such conditions do not drive resources to – but intentionally pull needed resources away from individuals and communities based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc. We also understand there are other major individual factors that create conditions of food insecurity, such as: unemployment, underemployment, health disparities that magnify major health issue(s) that limits one’s ability to live self-sufficiently, homelessness, lack of support, substance abuse, criminal records, language barriers, geographic access, etc. 

In addition, there are families that are one paycheck away or the one major life altering circumstance would cause a family to experience food insecurity.