Proceeds from sale of shirts featuring Allegheny Ludlum stainless steel cars to fight child hunger

Heartbroken and angry over Allegheny Technologies’ decision to auction three stainless steel cars made by Allegheny Ludlum and Ford, Todd Barbiaux was determined to have something good come from it.

Barbiaux, president of United Steelworkers Local 1196 in Brackenridge, had shirts made featuring the 1936 Ford sedan, 1960 Thunderbird and 1967 Lincoln Continental that are slated to be sold at auction over Labor Day weekend.

He decided to give proceeds from shirt sales to Project SEED, short for Something to Eat Every Day, a nonprofit that helps fight childhood hunger in New Kensington-Arnold School District by giving kids in need bags of food to take home over weekends.

Barbiaux said he sold all but 17 of the 400 shirts he had made, raising about $1,600. Additional donations from union members put the total at $1,760.

“This is unbelievable,” Joanne Cecchi, co-founder of Project SEED, said upon getting the money from Barbiaux on Tuesday.

Cecchi said the group had set a $30,000 fundraising goal. As of Tuesday, they had $31,284.

“These guys put us over the top,” she said.

Cecchi, a former New Kensington-Arnold teacher and administrator who lives in Allegheny Township, founded Project SEED seven years ago with Ruth Carson, who had been a teacher and reading specialist in the district. They both retired in 2008; Carson died in 2016.

“We saw day after day, week after week, year after year kids coming to school hungry, especially on Mondays,” Cecchi said. “We decided to do something about it.”

During the school year, with about 40 volunteers, Project SEED provides between 200 and 250 students at Martin and Berkey elementary schools a bag of food to take home for the weekend. Teachers discreetly distribute them to kids every Friday.

This year, with schools being closed because of the covid-19 pandemic, Project SEED had no way to get food to the students and has been shut down since March, Cecchi said.

“I was heartsick about it and so were my volunteers,” said Cecchi, who noted the district’s food distribution efforts included extra on Fridays.

Cecchi said they’ll be ready to go for next school year.

Project SEED is funded entirely by donations from individuals, groups and organizations. Cecchi said she does not get any government funding or grants.

“We always have enough to feed the kids,” she said. “It always comes through.”

Barbiaux said he mailed shirts to buyers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Montana, Florida and Texas.

Local 1196 has taken on Project SEED as a cause since Barbiaux first learned about it in December 2018.

“We’re dedicated to Project SEED,” he said. “That’s what we’re all about now.”

Local 1196 has donated about $6,000 to Project SEED since September, Barbiaux said. That included proceeds from a member who auctioned a guitar on eBay.

With each bag of food costing $3 per child, per week, the union’s donation has paid for 18,000 bags of food in less than a year, Cecchi said.

“That’s a lot of food,” she said.

Cecchi said her father and uncle worked at Allegheny Ludlum and probably knew about the stainless steel cars.

Despite Barbiaux’s efforts to have the three cars returned to the community, ATI spokeswoman Natalie Gillespie said Tuesday the company still plans to go forward with the auction.

Gillespie could not say what the company plans to do with the one remaining car, a 1967 Lincoln Continental.