Although food drives are especially popular during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, food pantries in the county need donations throughout the year to serve their families.

When donations slow during the summer months, local food banks meet these needs through a variety of sources, including local grocery stores and chain restaurants.

Olive Garden in Cranberry Township has donated more than 62,500 pounds of food to the area since 2005, according to Shawn Majors, the restaurant’s general manager.

Some of that food has gone to The Lighthouse Foundation in Middlesex Township.

Cindy Cipoletti, the foundation’s executive director, said Sheetz, LongHorn Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse and Chipotle also donate to the pantry, which serves more than 300 families.

Olive Garden donates everything from lasagna, soup and sauce to its unused proteins, such as chicken, steak and salmon.

This initiative became a consistent baseline for Olive Garden in 2003, according to Majors.

“One out of eight people are food deficient in the United States,” Majors said. “We want to make sure we’re giving anything we can give back to the community.”

Majors said Olive Garden donates any food it has in surplus.

“We donate all of our stuff frozen,” Majors said. “We do a cooling chart where we make sure everything is safe, just like we would for our guests.”

There are also guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture the food pantry must follow, such as being able to accept and distribute only meat that is frozen. Cipoletti said this isn’t typically an issue, except around Thanksgiving when people may donate fresh turkeys.

“If we get (fresh meat), we may cook it at the soup kitchen and serve it,” she said.

Food that cannot be given out at the pantry can sometimes be used in the soup kitchen during pantry pickup days.

Theresa Berryman, The Lighthouse Foundation’s marketing and grant manager, said Olive Garden has also helped The Lighthouse Foundation in other ways.

“We got a bunch of soup bowls and plates, and it was really a huge blessing for us,” Berryman said. “Basically everything we have is donated, and to have such nice dinnerware for the people we’re serving was exciting.”

Eligibility to receive food from The Lighthouse Foundation isn’t set in stone, according to Berryman. The only requirement to be served, she said, is to “be hungry.”

“Our job is to serve food,” she said. “They’re responsible to be honest and say ‘we need the food.’ We don’t check paychecks.”

Berryman said one of the requirements is to list the names and ages of those in the household so the foundation can ensure it is helping the family meet other needs, such as for children’s supplies like diapers or backpacks.

Berryman added that most of the families served live below the poverty line. Incomes to be at the poverty cutoff can vary from $18,000 to $62,000. For example, a family of four is considered to be at the poverty level when annual household income is $37,000 or less.

Most orders the food bank gives to people are between $200 to $250 worth of food, which means those served can save about $500 a month, and put that money toward other necessary expenses, such as medication, rent or car payments.

The foundation’s director of operations, Doug Snyder, said he finds the minimal application process to be helpful for many families.

“With the way we’re set up, they can come immediately,” he said. “It gives them alleviation from that pressure.”

Snyder said many families who use their services have received a “bad deal,” such as an unexpected medical bill or car troubles that have caused a hiccup in the lives families that live paycheck-to-paycheck.

“They may just use us for a very short time, until they get out of that tight spot,” Snyder said.

The foundation receives most of its food as a partner agency with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which sources and distributes food to nearly 400 partner agencies in an 11-county service region. The foundation buys grocery items like meat, dairy, canned goods and produce from the community food bank at discounted prices, Cipoletti said. Berryman said the pantry has never run out of food.

“The truth is that we’re so blessed by the generosity of local businesses that we’re able to serve everyone and give them an abundant food order,” she said.

Those interested in donating or volunteering for The Lighthouse Foundation can learn more at https://www.thelighthousepa.org/ or by calling at 724-586-5554.