Thousands pack 1 million meals at Pittsburgh convention center

More than 4,000 people spent Black Friday morning packing meals in Downtown Pittsburgh instead of shopping among a crowd of strangers.

They sang, laughed and prayed together as they packed more than 1 million meals of apple cinnamon oatmeal and chicken rice soup during the third Amen to Action, a Pittsburgh-based event started by former Edgewood resident Reid Carpenter, who now lives in Naples, Fla.

The meals will be distributed to food banks across Southwest Pennsylvania.

Here’s how the oatmeal is packaged. pic.twitter.com/sRabxT5PN1

— Tom Davidson (@TribDavidson) November 29, 2019

Carpenter was inspired by the Rev. Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopal priest who served in Shadyside in the 1950s and famously challenged the city’s faithful of all denominations to strive to make Pittsburgh “as famous for God as for steel.”

Amen to Action was born out of that sentiment, and Carpenter and a group of Pittsburgh faith leaders helped him form the group. It partners with Florida-based Meals of Hope to make the Friday after Thanksgiving a day of giving back in Pittsburgh.

“It’s time for us to give back. That’s the most important thing for us. We’ve made it a tradition,” said April Shanahan of Franklin Park.

Shanahan, her daughter and their friends stood around one of the hundreds of banquet tables that filled one of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center’s exhibit halls for a morning of meal-making.

They’re making their way inside to spend the morning helping others. pic.twitter.com/D64pPcI764

— Tom Davidson (@TribDavidson) November 29, 2019

They were grouped into teams, given hairnets, trained and started to work with assembly-line precision and efficiency. Volunteers funneled the fixings that made up the oatmeal meal or the soup mix into bags, sealed and boxed them for counting. They will ultimately be distributed by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Here’s a short time-lapse of the meal packing at @AmenToAction pic.twitter.com/zaiq4ofeOo

— Tom Davidson (@TribDavidson) November 29, 2019

“Nobody’s asking the question, ‘What church are you from?’ They’re here to be together and to work together,” Carpenter said. “I don’t even know where they’re from. They registered online.”

Volunteers packed 1,029,456 meals in about three hours Friday morning.

More than six tractor-trailers full of food and supplies were used in the endeavor, said Steve Popper, president of Meals of Hope. The event is one of the largest his nonprofit helps to coordinate.

“Our goal is to feed people who are hungry in the U.S.,” Popper said.

The event is a chance to share blessings with others, said Sister Lois, of Felician Sisters of North America, based in Beaver County.

“I think it’s so important to share the gifts God has given us,” she said. “Working together in unity.”