Family's food pantry grows into a nonprofit, moving to Arnold

More help for people in need is coming to Arnold.

The Speed Family Blessing Box & Pantry is moving into the Arnold No. 2 Fire Company’s training and social center — its former bingo hall — on Fifth Avenue.

In addition to food, they’ll have clothing, pet food, toiletries and baby essentials, said Chelsey Speed, founder and CEO. They’ll also help with finding other sources of help, such as filling out applications for food stamps.

There are no income guidelines, and people from anywhere can come.

“We don’t ever say no,” Speed said. “If we have it, we give it.”

They plan to host their first event, a benefit spaghetti dinner, from 2-6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20 and have their first distribution the following week.

After that, there will be two distributions each month, expected to be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday, Speed said.

Speed and her family now live in Lower Burrell. What grew into their nonprofit started as a 3-foot wide, 2-foot deep wooden pantry box, or “blessing box,” in front of their house during the covid pandemic in 2020 when they lived in Penn Hills.

Like other such pantries, it was stocked with nonperishable food items for people to take if they needed. It’s still there, only across Richmore Drive in front of a neighbor’s home since they moved.

It ended up getting so much support from the community that the family had to use their garage to store donations. They started distributing boxes of food.

“It just kept growing and growing and growing,” Speed said. “We were able to provide toiletries, pet food and baby essentials that people couldn’t afford or find during the pandemic.”

After a few months, Speed said they applied for nonprofit status, so people would feel more comfortable giving money and to get donations from businesses. That came through in May 2021.

“We don’t receive any food bank food. We don’t receive any assistance from the government,” she said. “We do this strictly from donations.”

In need of more space than their garage, the family moved to Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Verona, where they used two rooms, putting in shelving for storage and holding a monthly distribution.

By September this year, they outgrew their space at the church. They were serving about 260 families when they moved in; now they’re up to about 800.

Speed said they considered moving to locations in Arnold, New Kensington and Tarentum before settling on Arnold.

“That was our focus area,” she said. “We want to go where the biggest need was.”

The Speed family is renting the space from the fire company, spokesman Chris O’Leath said.

With the advent of casinos, the fire department’s bingos came to an end, he said. The New Kensington-Arnold Lions Club was the last to run bingo there, which it closed a few months ago.

A memorial Oktoberfest for former fire Chief Keith Dziobak was the last fire company event to be held in the space. It will be moved to a new location next year, O’Leath said.

While firefighters still use the building for training, it’s a large space, O’Leath said.

“There’s only so much larger classroom stuff we can do in there,” he said. “It’s a lot to maintain and not being used.”

O’Leath said what Speed and her family is doing is amazing.

“They’re really helping in a lot of different areas. They’re providing resources that are difficult for folks to get in touch with or deal with,” he said. “She’s doing wonderful work down there. It’s a win-win for both of us.”

Mayor Joe Bia said having the nonprofit in Arnold can only help.

“We certainly have a lot of folks that need a helping hand,” he said. “Many throughout the community do not get a good meal, if they have a meal at all.”

Speed said they plan to work with The Tomb in Arnold, Knead Community Cafe in New Kensington and Highlands Family Center in Tarentum.

Keeping true to their beginning, Speed said they’re having a pantry box built for their new home on Spooky Hollow Road.