'Produce to People' food bank finds new winter home in Tarentum

A program that provides fresh produce to people in need will be one of the first community services operating out of the former Rite Aid building in Tarentum.

“Produce to People,” a program of the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches, will distribute food from the building at 411 Corbet St. during the winter months.

The first distribution will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Future distributions at the former Rite Aid building will be held at the same time on the second Tuesday of the month through April. In May, distributions will return to a parking lot at Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Montana Avenue in Harrison.

Rite Aid donated the building, an historic opera house, to Abundant Joy Fellowship, a nondenominational church in Tarentum. Its pastor, Cathy Blythe, has said she wants to use the building as a community center that would include services such as feeding programs.

Rite Aid closed its pharmacy on the building’s first floor in March 2018.

Karen Snair, executive director of the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches, said the group approached Blythe about using the building for the produce distribution.

“I don’t think she was aware of the fact we needed a space. We approached her and she was very open to the idea,” she said. “Everybody just thought it’s great. There’s lots of space. It’s not super warm, but it’s better than being outside for sure. It’s wonderful to be out of the elements in a nice, large space.”

More than 400 families were served in October. The November distribution, which also was outside, served about 240 families despite a snow storm, Snair said.

No advance registration is required, and the distribution is open to anyone, Snair said. Food is provided by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Snair said they never know what produce and other food they’ll have available until it comes.

“Sometimes we have meat, sometimes we don’t,” she said. “We don’t know until that day what we’re getting.”

Volunteers are needed for the produce distribution, and are being advised to dress for the cold. There will not be any seats, so volunteers should bring their own if needed.

Volunteers are asked to arrive around 4:30 p.m. Organizers said parking spaces at the location will be limited. Parking will be available up East Fourth Avenue at Central Presbyterian Church and down Corbet Street at Abundant Joy.