Pandemic drives Pittsburgh region's food insecurity to new heights, reshapes assistance efforts

Food insecurity is an ongoing problem in the Pittsburgh region, made much worse by the covid-19 pandemic. Area food banks have responded by redoubling their efforts while facing new challenges.

With pandemic restrictions putting many American breadwinners out of work or reducing their hours, food banks this year have been serving large numbers of first-time recipients.

Food bank network Feeding America says 2020 may end with hunger having affected 50 million people across the nation, including more than 17 million children, because of the pandemic. In an October survey by Danone North America’s Two Good Yogurt and OnePoll, 40% of those responding indicated covid-19 had contributed to their first experience with food insecurity.

That phenomenon has been felt in Westmoreland County. “Throughout the year, first-time visits have been up compared to prior years,” said Jennifer Miller, chief executive officer of the Westmoreland County Food Bank, a Feeding America participant headquartered near Delmont with a network of 44 local pantries.

“Most of the people we’ve been seeing were not making a living wage,” Miller said. “Their hours have been cut or they’ve lost their jobs. Their families have really been affected.”

Miller said demand for monthly and emergency food assistance went up this year during the pandemic. Reaching a monthly high of about 9,500 households served, “it has settled down since spring,” most recently around 7,500 per month, she said.

One of the organization’s services that has been in high demand is its federally funded senior box program, which provides a monthly box of supplemental food to income-eligible residents 60 and older.

“We did see a lot of seniors who wanted to get involved in the program,” Miller said. “I think it was that fear of the virus. (Because of the program), it was so easy to be able to get that food and not have to get out as much.”

There is a waiting list, because funding covers a maximum of 1,326 boxes each month.

Official recommendations to stay at home as a pandemic precaution helped prompt the Duquesne-based Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to roll out a home delivery food service sooner than it had planned.

“That was a direct response to the pandemic,” food bank President Lisa Scales said. “We recognized the importance of home delivery, especially for people who are seniors and have limited mobility.”

Responding to requests placed through the food bank’s website or call center, volunteers completed 14,000 deliveries in the first seven months of that new program.

The combination of pandemic concerns and rapidly expanding need for food assistance has reshaped the Greater Pittsburgh bank’s services in other ways.

The food bank, working with more than 300 partner organizations, has since March distributed more than 30 million pounds of food to those in need across an 11-county area. That represents a 42% increase in regional food insecurity.

“Some of our food pantries have seen increases as much as 50%,” Scales said.

Many distributions have transitioned to drive-thru events, to provide limited or no contact between volunteers and recipients. First-hand observations at some of those events have driven home for Scales the pandemic’s broad impact on food insecurity.

“A week and a half ago, I was at a distribution in Wilkinsburg,” Scales said Wednesday. “I spoke to between 20 and 25 people, and every one of them was unemployed, or someone in their household was unemployed.

“Some of them have health issues. One woman has stage 4 cancer. She’s afraid to go to the grocery store and doesn’t have family around to help her, so the food bank is her sole source of food.”

The increasing volume of requests to the food bank’s call center required doubling the staff assigned to it from two to four. “We’re in the process of hiring a fifth person,” Scales said.

Additionally, Scales said, the food bank has added to its network at least 125 new partner organizations — including local veterans groups and job training programs — that lack full-scale pantries but are serving as bridges to get needed food into the hands of their clients.

“We will continue to keep them within our network and will continue to grow that program,” she said.

The Allegheny Valley Association of Churches provides programs for those in need in the Alle-Kiski Valley. It participates in large monthly drive-thru food distributions at the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer, where the number of recipients has grown from about 500 households in the summer to well over 600 this month, according to executive director Karen Snair.

“It was closed for registration four days before the event” because of the growing demand, Snair said.

An additional weekly drive-thru food pantry at the association’s Natrona Heights headquarters serves about 400, she said, many of them senior citizens.

Because of pandemic precautions, the association can no longer use its 15-passenger van to bring residents to the pantry from area senior apartment buildings. Instead, volunteers have stepped up to deliver food to seniors.

“We bring the food right to where they’re at,” Snair said. “The (recipient) numbers have gone up since we started doing that.”

Donations up, volunteers needed

Fortunately, area food banks report the donations that help them keep going also have increased this year.

“The community has really stepped up,” Snair said. She used a $500 grant from a state Realtor group to purchase grocery items, including bread, that aren’t available through the regional network of food banks.

The Westmoreland County Food Bank recently received a donation of $400 worth of ground beef from 4-year-old Giavonna Coleman of Jeannette. It was a true example of paying good fortune forward, as she received the meat through a winning ticket her grandfather purchased in a raffle conducted by the Level Green Volunteer Fire Department.

“She said she wanted to feed the people that didn’t have enough food for the holidays,” Miller said. The meat will provide servings for 100 families.

The Greater Pittsburgh bank indicates it can turn a donation of $100 into 500 meals. “We’re fortunate to have such a generous community in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” Scales said.

Where the organizations are coming up short is on manpower to keep up with the growing food demand.

“We’re in desperate need of volunteers to help pre-pack (food) boxes,” Miller said. “It’s more necessary than ever.”

Scales is in a similar situation, noting the Greater Pittsburgh food-packing operation has expanded to a third shift.

Helping bring food to those in need has its own rewards, Scales said: “It’s such an honor to do the work we do every day. There’s a lot of stress and anxiety that goes along with food insecurity. People don’t always know where their next meal is coming from.

“This helps to stabilize their lives. It’s transformative.”