‘Pop-up’ distributions at Gateway High School help hundreds each month

For Thanksgiving, a group of Moss Side Middle School mothers arranged a “pop-up” food distribution that served more than 40 families.

“We noticed how many people we helped, and there was more of a demand,” organizer Jennifer Czyzewski said. “So we wanted to go ahead and do it districtwide, and give everybody the opportunity.”

The result is a regularly scheduled, and well-attended, distribution at Gateway High School.

“The month before last, we had 608 families that we helped, and last month, it was about 400,” Monica Kraykovic, another coordinator, said during preparations for the June event. “We have so many people in our community who can, obviously, benefit from everything that we can offer them. And that’s what we want to do. We just want to help.”

She joins Czyzewski and fellow mom Kristin Parady in making sure everything runs smoothly each second Wednesday, with a break for July. The next “pop-up” market is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9.

A partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank brings all kinds of products to Monroeville.

“They get a very wide selection of meats and produce and canned goods and paper products,” Gateway School Board member Valerie Warning said. She and Jennifer Hoffner, University Park Elementary School principal, assisted in launching the effort and continue to support it.

An emphasis is on meeting students’ nutritional requirements.

“When they go for testing, they always say, make sure you eat a good breakfast,” Czyzewski said. “Well, there’s a reason. They should eat a good breakfast every morning. So making sure that they have three meals a day puts them in a better mindset to come to school.”

But the distributions, she emphasized, are open to everyone.

“We’re not going to turn anyone away,” she said. “And it’s very anonymous. You just drive through.”

Several stations are set up along the drive that runs between the high school and Walter “Pete” Antimarino Stadium, manned by volunteers who start by taking information.

“We have somebody out there who will ask them, ‘How many families are you picking up for?’” Kraykovic said, along with inquiring about dietary restrictions.

The answers are posted on vehicles’ windshields, and the motorists proceed, receiving boxes full of items at each stop.

“We go until our line is through, as long as we still have food. We may not be able to give you everything, but we still can give you something,” Czyzewski said. “We’re not going to let you just come through and get nothing.”

Volunteers are essential to the operation, and plenty of people have stepped up, from conscientious members of the community to Gateway students of all ages. For example, Carmella Wright, who is going into second grade at Evergreen Elementary School, helped bag produce for the June distribution with her mother, Rosanna Weaver.

“No matter how young they are, we find tasks that are appropriate for them and make them really feel like they are helping,” Kraykovic said.

She and the other organizers consider the experience to be therapeutic as well as philanthropic.

“We’re a good group. We work well together,” Parady said. “We all want to help the community and like to help the community.”

Warning agreed.

“It’s a good feeling when you see the people driving past and they’re happy that they have something,” she said. And her take on the mothers who started it all:

“These women are phenomenal. They do so much.”