Whitehall dad’s front yard food pantry goes viral after surprise cash donation

AJ Owen just wanted to help hungry neighbors with a front yard food pantry — he didn’t expect internet fame to show up, too.

The Whitehall resident created the pantry to help people in fear of losing support from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

After the 36-year-old single father shared a post last week about the pantry on Facebook, an anonymous donor left stacks of money in his mailbox. Owen tearfully shared the surprise cash — estimated at thousands — in a TikTok video on Sunday. The post has since racked up over 16 million views.

“The amount of donations we received, and the amount of people coming and coming and getting food is both so gratifying and so horrifying,” Owen said. “So many people need help and I’m so happy to be a resource for them.”

Since then, the pantry — which started as an opportunity for Owen to teach his kids a life lesson — has blossomed into something so much bigger. On Wednesday morning, Owen’s lawn acted not only as a source of food but as a place of community. Good Morning America also featured his story.

In Whitehall, Letti Desantis, 62, of Pleasant Hills, swung by Owen’s house Wednesday morning to drop off cans of soup and cat food.

Desantis said she herself lives paycheck to paycheck but wanted to find a way to give back.

“It’s really great what you’re doing,” Desantis said to Owen, who was organizing the most recent donations.

While at the pantry, Desantis met a woman who was there filling bags with food for her family.

The woman, who declined to share her name due to the stigma surrounding food insecurity, and Desantis spent the morning chatting and laughing. They hugged as they bid each other farewell.

Moments like that, Desantis said, are what make giving to local pantries so meaningful.

“I’m so glad I got to see her too, because that was very rewarding. Some people just have such hard lives and I think anything we can do to help them through this time,” Desantis said.

Owen said the food pantry idea started after he had a conversation with his kids — ages 7 and 9 — about SNAP benefits last week.

“Even though my kids are younger, I try to keep them updated on what’s happening in our country,” Owen said. And when they heard that benefits might get cut and people might not get food — including children, they asked why and I explained it to them in a manner that they could understand.”

Owen said his sons said they wanted to help. He suggested they look in the basement for a container and put out some food in the front yard from Aldi.

The next day, the storage container was 70% empty, Owen said.

On Tuesday, Owen was restocking the bright yellow bins, which sit outside his house, located on Lantern Hill Drive, when Pittsburgh Steelers rookie defensive end Yahya Black and his fiancée stopped to drop off multiple bags of groceries.

Owen, who had been documenting the pantry’s journey, posted another TikTok video featuring the two of them.

Owen’s TikTok comments are filled with photos from people across the country showing off their own food pantries.

“I’ve had so many people reach out to say they are inspired,” he said.

Pantry in Tarentum

Across Allegheny County, Donna Baxter, 68, also set up a food pantry on the porch of her Tarentum home to support people who might feel overwhelmed since losing their SNAP benefits.

“It’s always been a passion of mine to make sure that people are fed,” Baxter said, of 453 East Seventh Ave. “I put a little blurb on Facebook, and we restocked our table (Wednesday) morning. And we’ve got bags more food over there and people coming with food.”

Both Baxter and Owen said they try not to monitor the pantry too much so that food-insecure people will feel more comfortable in dropping by.

Elizabeth Bowman, 60, who was utilizing Owen’s pantry on Wednesday, said she has been reliant on food pantries for over 20 years.

Bowman, who lives in Brentwood, said she drove all the way to Whitehall for the pantry. She left with socks, canned beans and bread.

“I believe that whoever’s giving out this food right now, they’re gonna get blessed and in a miraculous way, it doesn’t have to be the ones that come and get the food,” Bowman said. “It might not be us. It might just be something from up above.”