'I know what it's like to be hungry': Greensburg church to donate 400 Thanksgiving dinners to local families

Kim Colosimo remembers what it’s like to be hungry.

“I went through a divorce many, many years ago,” said Colosimo, who moved to Latrobe from Johnstown two years ago. “I had two small children. I was ‘this close’ from not having a home.”

The church she attended in Johnstown is what pulled her through.

“My church family there just rallied around me, and they were so supportive,” Colosimo said. “That leaves a mark with you.”

That’s why Colosimo volunteered this year to support the Thanksgiving meal distribution at her new church, Otterbein United Methodist in Greensburg.

The College Avenue church will donate 400 meals to local families in need Wednesday.

“A lot of folks want to second-guess — when someone’s homeless, they must be an alcoholic, or they must have drug issues,” said Colosimo, the chairwoman of Otterbein’s unsheltered ministry. “Not really always the case.

“Sometimes you’ve gone through a life event and something happens and expenses become too much. For me, personally, that’s kind of what happened.”

Church tradition

The meal distribution is not a new endeavor for Otterbein. For decades, the church held a sit-down meal on Thanksgiving, said Tom Diehl, chairman of the holiday food program.

The church pivoted to grab-and-go meals during the pandemic, Diehl said — a move that has allowed them to feed more people with fewer volunteers.

Otterbein expects to donate meals to about 400 people this year, he said.

Meals include turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables and cranberry sauce purchased from Long’s Catering in Unity. Texas Roadhouse in Hempfield donates its famous rolls and cinnamon butter, and church members donate the pumpkin pie.

About 30 to 50 people end up on the church’s wait list for a Thanksgiving dinner each year, Diehl said.

Though the church expects to feed the same number of people as last Thanksgiving, Diehl said meal recipients registered earlier than usual this year — 250 registrants within the first week.

“That was about the time where the state and federal government was kind of in limbo with food stamps,” Diehl said. “A lot of people were thinking, ‘OK, well, what am I gonna do this year?’ ”

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits were halted this month amid the federal government shutdown. At the same time, Pennsylvania’s finances were in flux as state legislators slipped into a monthslong budget impasse.

The federal government reopened Nov. 13, reviving the SNAP program. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a $50.1 billion budget Nov. 12.

‘Community focus’

No proof of need is required to register for one of Otterbein’s Thanksgiving meals. It’s just one example of the church’s focus on community, Diehl said.

The church’s unsheltered ministry gives clothes and meals to local homeless people. Its mobility clinic, held once a quarter, connects elderly people with Seton Hill occupational therapy students, who help attendees learn to move with a cane or walker.

“We really have a community focus here at our church,” Diehl said, “and it’s a big part of the ministry here — to try and reach out to the community to help those folks that need some help.”