As the feverish process of accepting donations and deliveries and processing them into categories and finally boxes for Butler County's needy continues nonstop at St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry on North Monroe Street, impromptu donations from concerned citizens also enter the mix.

“I have baked goods from our church freezer,” a woman said to pantry manager Lewis Czzowitz on Tuesday. “There's a lot of them.”

Czzowitz' reaction is pure appreciation and humility.

“This happens all the time,” he said as he gazed at the large box of colorful cookies and pastries housed in their original plastic boxes.

Czzowitz, who has served at the pantry on a volunteer basis for 12 years, said the 600 families per month who collect their box of food will receive something extra for the holidays.

“These people try to gather with their families, so they need help,” he said of the long line of individuals snaking through the building, waiting to collect their boxes.

Each recipient gets rice, raisins, two pastas, beef stew, tuna, cereal, tomato sauce, four cans of vegetables, four cans of soup, canned fruit, a bread item and, depending on their family size, chicken, hot dogs or lunch meat and pizza.

“A large family can get ribs or a roast,” Czzowitz said. “We never know what we're going to get donated.”

The pantry, which boasts 50 to 60 volunteers, is open for food distribution from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, but recipients can only visit a food pantry in the county once per month.

Recipients must fill out a form and meet certain income guidelines to receive food, Czzowitz said.

While he declined to specify what it is, he said a little extra something will be added to the box for holiday meals.

He said he saves up the toilet paper and paper towels that are sparsely donated, and when he has enough, one roll is given to each client.

Pantry volunteer Jim Owens said the tons of food stored in the pantry's warehouse and processed into boxes from local liquor stores come from church food drives, The Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, big-box stores, convenience stores, restaurants, individual donors and others.

From July through September, Owens said, many farmers grow crops just for the food pantry. The congregation at a church donates food from their respective gardens to help feed the hungry of the community.

While tons of food were separated, packed and handed to a long line of recipients Tuesday, Owens recalls when times were even tougher in Butler.

“At one time, we had 1,000 families per month,” he said. “I think it was in the early 2000s.”

He said a drop in unemployment since then has lowered the number served each month.

Many of the recipients are elderly couples living on their Social Security, which pays for their rent and not much more.

Others are food stamp recipients whose benefits were significantly cut in recent years.

As a member of one of the county's 11 Vincentian conferences, Owens feels a call to help feed the needy.

“I am willing and able to help the poor and serve them with dignity and respect,” Owens said.

Volunteering to feed the needy also seems to come naturally to Czzowitz.

“I've volunteered long before I retired and this was just a natural progression for me,” he said of the food pantry.

Petroleum Valley Food Cupboard

The Rev. John Pistorius serves as pastor at St. John's Reformed Church in Chicora and manages the Petroleum Valley Food Cupboard in Fairview Borough.

He said last week's winter storm and power outages ruined tons of food in the homes in his area.

“It's a precarious time for the power to go down, right before the holidays,” Pistorius said. “The stories in our area are heartbreaking.”

He said the pantry received a small supply of holiday turkeys from Sonneborn in Karns City, but they have all been distributed.

Those who do not get a gift card from a turkey drive in Pittsburgh will get extra food, Pistorius said.

About 65 families receive food from the food cupboard on the third Friday of each month, Pistorius said.

A common misconception, he said, is that only those who receive food from the cupboard regularly can get food. He said those who find themselves in a food emergency can access the cupboard.

“We're helping everybody we possibly can,” said Pistorius.

He said he goes to the extra effort of running the food cupboard because the Bible teaches Christ's followers to do so.

“We're told if you are thirsty, I will give you something to drink, if you're hungry, I will give you food, and if you're naked, I will give you clothes.” Pistorius said.

Family Life pantry

Barb Thompson runs the Family Life Ministries Food Pantry at the Church of God of Prophecy on Mercer Road in Center Township.

There, volunteers pack enough boxes for 48 families, who arrive on the third Saturday of each month to collect their food.

“Around the holidays we usually get more people,” Thompson said. “In the summertime it slacks off.”

She said turkey vouchers are available to the families who come to the food pantry, and side dishes that could be used for a holiday meal are regularly included in the monthly distributions.

She said the volunteers at her facility go the extra mile at Christmastime by finding a way to procure toys for the families of the littlest children.

“Last year we had Matchbox cars and dolls for every family with kids,” she said.

Toys are sometimes given to elderly pantry recipients as well.

“Sometimes grandparents can't afford to get things for the kids, and that helps them out too,” Thompson said.

Donations of unexpired food can be taken to any of the county's 13 food cupboards.

The pantries can be found by searching “Butler County, Pa. food pantries” online.