Food giveaway helps feed 400 families in Pittsburgh's West End
Robin Matthews didn’t think she would have Thanksgiving this year.
She suffered a heart attack and had surgery in October. Her fiancee died of a heart attack the same month. A fire last week caused heavy damage to her Sheraden home.
“I have nothing,” Matthews, 61, said. “My second floor is gone. Everything I have on is brand new. We have nothing at all.”
But she can have Thanksgiving dinner, compliments of a food giveaway Tuesday sponsored by Oklahoma-based Feed the Children, several local organizations and Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith of Westwood.
“This is a great help to us,” Matthews said. “I thought I wasn’t even going to have a Thanksgiving. I’m grateful for this, really. I am so thankful.”
The organizations, including the nonprofit Feed Our Students of Canonsburg and True Sense Marketing of Warrendale, and volunteers from FedEx distributed boxes filled with nonperishable food, Avon makeup and Disney children’s books to 400 needy families in Pittsburgh’s West End. Pittsburgh police officers provided traffic control and helped load boxes into vehicles.
Food vouchers went to residents of Mountain View Apartments in Crafton Heights and the families of students enrolled in Langley K-8 in Sheraden. Volunteers distributed the food at the Mountain View community center.
Kail-Smith, who represents the West End, said the event happened through a chance conversation while she was having lunch with her cousin’s husband, Steven DelVitto, founder and director of Feed Our Students, which partners with Feed the Children on food giveaways.
DelVitto needed a complex where residents received housing subsidies to stage the event.
“He was concerned we were going to lose the opportunity here for our region,” Kail-Smith said. “I said, ‘What about our area?’ Everything fell into place. Everybody was agreeable to make this happen. I feel God’s hands were all over this.”
Brian Brady, director of distribution for Feed the Children, said the Pittsburgh event was among similar giveaways happening Tuesday in Rutherford, N.J.; Dayton, Ohio; Phoenix and Washington D.C.
“We’re feeding 15,000 families in the next six weeks,” he said.
Recipients said they sorely needed the food, which included such things as canned vegetables, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese and peanut butter.
Tyonna Kelly, 21, a Mountain View resident, said the items would make the holidays a little happier for her and her 4-year-old daughter.
“I’m just thankful because around this time, it’s not that easy, especially for a single mother,” she said.
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