Delmont police, Sheetz collect about 10 tons of food for families, health care workers

’Tis the season for giving, and that sentiment isn’t lost on the organizations who interact with the public every day and have a ground-level view of the difficulty faced by not just families but also front-line health care workers.

That’s why the Delmont Police Department decided to hold its first-ever food drive for the Westmoreland County Food Bank shortly before Thanksgiving.

“We ended up donating about 1,600 pounds of food,” said Delmont Police Chief T.J. Klobucar. “I was really excited. It was fun, we had a great day.”

In addition to collecting food, police also sold T-shirts branded with the department’s logo, allowing them to make a roughly $1,400 donation to the food bank.

“We had someone who came all the way from Mt. Pleasant after seeing it in the news,” Klobucar said. “We’re really happy with how it turned out, and we’re looking at doing it again, possibly in the spring.”

Typically, the holiday season has food drives aplenty. That hasn’t always been the case this year, according to Westmoreland County Food Bank Executive Director Jennifer Miller.

“This year was a little more sparse, partly because (of social distancing),” Miller said. “A lot of people also felt they weren’t able to donate food in case there was another shutdown. We’ve been surprised at what we’ve received, but it’s definitely down from last year.”

That makes food drives like Delmont’s that much more critical, she said.

“It’s people helping people,” she said. “When you hear about these groups, whether it’s the police or a church group or someone else, they’re helping their neighbors, parishioners, maybe even someone they know, who has to access food services.”

That largesse has also extended to front-line health care workers: on Monday, regional convenience store chain Sheetz sent drivers to the six states it serves to give out more than 9 tons of food to local hospitals, to help assist medical workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The meals include a variety of snacks and drinks to help fuel medical personnel including doctors, nurses and hospital staff as they work around the clock to deliver life-saving care to those fighting covid-19.

In the Pittsburgh area, donations were given to UPMC facilities in Pittsburgh and Altoona, Mount Nittany Medical Center, Geisiner Wilkes-Barre, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton.

Donations were also presented to hospitals in Ohio, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.