Dear Friend,
According to recent data from Feeding America, 1 in 11 older Americans are food insecure. These are neighbors who have worked, raised families and helped build our community.
For older neighbors living on fixed incomes, every day can bring impossible decisions. Should they purchase their lifesaving medications or buy groceries for the week? Should they keep their heat on during cold nights or stock their pantry? No one — especially those who have given so much to our community over the years — should face such choices.
At Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, we’re committed to ensuring our seniors have reliable access to nutritious food, and we need your support now more than ever. As you read through the online edition of News from the Heart, which focuses on senior hunger, I ask you to think about the older adults in your own life. Then consider making your most generous gift today to help provide nourishing meals for seniors in need.
Remember, every $1 you donate can help provide 3 meals to someone facing hunger. Your compassion and generosity make a real difference in the lives of our older neighbors. Thank you!
Lisa A. Scales
President and CEO
“It Really, Really Makes a Difference”
Dottie and Valerie often come to the monthly walk-in distribution at the Butler City Farmers Market together, picking out the fresh fruits, vegetables and proteins that will help keep them nourished and healthy.
The pair met through church, which was a true blessing for Valerie, who doesn’t drive. She relies on Dottie to bring her and always looks forward to coming.
“I was able to pick out what I needed and what I didn’t want,” Valerie says. “It was perfect.”
Dottie is retired, but still works one day a week. “I am on social security and a fixed income, and this has really made a difference in my life,” she says.
In addition to her own food, Dottie picks up boxes of meat and fresh produce for people who are unable to get to the distribution — something she says she started doing years ago.
“I pick up six shares, so then I deliver because transportation and timing is an issue. And sometimes we take everything that they give, and then we help even more people by taking this to our church care pantry,” Dottie explains.
Dottie and Valerie both appreciate the nutritious food that supplements what they can afford to buy in the store. And they are thankful for the donors and volunteers who help bring the distribution to their community.
“For us that are on fixed income, it really, really makes a difference. It really stretches the food budget, and the costs in the grocery stores are skyrocketing,” Dottie says. “Also it’s giving me an opportunity to volunteer as I deliver to all the different families.”
Because of you, we’re reaching more neighbors in rural areas. Seniors and families can get the groceries they need and feel the added stability of having healthy food available at home. Thank you!
“They’re Doing a Beautiful Thing”
Ronald worked for years, and says his favorite job was cooking. Now his focus is on his health. He’s on disability, which means his monthly budget has gotten much tighter as the cost of healthy food remains high.
He’s spent the last several years concentrating on his heart health and is now frequently in and out of the doctor’s office for breathing treatments. Through it all, Ronald knows he has one less worry because he can access nutritious food when he needs it, thanks to donors like you.
Ronald has visited a few different food pantries and distributions around the Pittsburgh area over the years, but says he especially likes going to The Market, the food bank’s onsite food pantry. Not only is it just 10 minutes from his house, but he likes that he can look around and choose what he wants.
“It helps a lot,” he says. “It lasts for quite a while for me because I’m by myself.”
Ronald’s favorite foods to pick out are juices, fruits and meats. Because proteins and fresh produce have become hard to afford, he’s grateful he can access those items through The Market. He still enjoys cooking, so he looks forward to making meals with the healthy food he gets.
“I like to cook hamburgers, chicken. I like to cook meatloaf and all that stuff,” he says with a smile. “I cook and I like to cook meat!”
Ronald is thankful for the donors who help make pantries like The Market possible — and for the volunteers who treat him with kindness. “They’re doing a beautiful thing,” he says.
Your support helps seniors like Ronald access the nutritious food he needs to thrive. Thank you!
Volunteers Put Our Mission Into Action
Howard Harris has been volunteering with Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank for the last 10 years or so with his wife, Paula. They brought their two sons to volunteer when the boys were little, and when Howard retired, he decided to come back.
“When our kids were young, we were looking for a way to get them involved in the community. And the Food Bank was a place that let kids that young come. So we used to go on Saturdays with them and to give them a sense of what it meant to help people in the community,” he says.
Howard comes three mornings a week, doing a little bit of everything. A lot of his time is spent in the warehouse, but he also works at a distribution in Clairton each month, helps with any project that comes up and sometimes goes out to farms to pick up food donations.
He says the act of directly helping someone else by giving them something they need is one reason he keeps coming back, but he also appreciates the way the Food Bank supports its volunteers. He looks forward to socializing with the other volunteers.
“A lot of folks like me, many of them are retired and it’s a great opportunity to do something useful and also have a social interaction with people, which becomes more difficult as you get older,” he says.
Aside from volunteering, Howard and Paula are long-time donors. He says it was the mission of the Food Bank that brought them in, but seeing that mission in action reinforces their desire to give and to volunteer.
“I think particularly for us, the pandemic was just such a striking moment and how the food bank would adjust. And at the same time it [the food bank] was very concerned about our health,” he says. “We did a lot of the home delivery, and then when it finally began to open up again, we were able to come in and they were very, very careful about trying to keep us healthy and safe. So all that just contributed to reinforcing our sense that this is a place where we felt our time and our money was well worth it.”
We love our volunteers! Whether you donate or volunteer — or both! — you’re helping neighbors through tough times. Join our team of volunteers!
“Every Little Bit Helps”
Christine was raised to be a giver and to care for others, and she lives as an example of that. After moving around the country for her career over the years, she settled in Kittanning in 2014 to care for her mother. Christine now spends her free time volunteering in her community.
But Christine is also on a special diet, and her fixed income doesn’t always stretch far enough to afford the nutritious food she needs. She’s thankful she can rely on the food pantry at Grace Presbyterian Church to supplement the limited amount she receives in food stamps, especially at the end of the month when her resources are depleted.
“The Food Bank has been a blessing to me lately,” Christine says. “Right now I have no food in my refrigerator.”
She appreciates that she can stock her pantry and her fridge with food from the distributions here, thanks to support from friends like you. And if she receives items she can’t use, she passes them on to others, which is an added bonus for her.
“Every little bit helps,” she says.
Your gifts help share food and hope throughout our community. Thank you for providing a safety net of support for our older neighbors!