Food pantry offers help, hope
ZELIENOPLE — Cindy Harter is reluctant to accept any praise for her work with the HOPE Food Pantry at the Zelienople Church of the Nazarene that recently earned her a public service award.
“This is a community at work, a truly functioning community,” Harter said. “This is not me by a long shot. This is people having great ideas and saying, 'We'll try that.'”
Harter of Cranberry Township was a recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service from Highmark Health and will receive a $1,000 contribution that will go to help keep the HOPE Food Pantry running.
She was honored in a ceremony April 27 in Pittsburgh with 11 other award winners.
Highmark is one of 27 U.S. organizations that serve as Jefferson Awards Champions and recognizes employees who give back to their communities through donations, public service and volunteerism.
“Cindy is a hard worker,” said Karen Wollerton, food pantry director. “She's innovative. She's got good ideas. She's very good at coordinating ideas and managing the personnel that we have available.”
Harter, a clinical coordinator for electrophysiology at Allegheny General Hospital, is treasurer and organizer for HOPE, which stands for Helping Other People Eat.
After federal guidelines changed several years ago and families in need were required to visit food pantries in their geographic locations, Harter said they began to see a need for people in her area who could no longer go to the Ellwood City Food Bank.
Zelienople Church of the Nazarene is in Franklin Township, Beaver County, but people from all over the area attend.
Some churchgoers wanted to start a food pantry of their own, but not take any federal funding so they could help people from any area, Harter said. The board of the church approved a space for the pantry to operate, but “this was truly a leap of faith,” she said.
The pantry opened in January 2014 and had about 15 families. But word soon spread and last month, Harter said the food pantry had 67 families come through the door.
Families must still meet federal assistance guidelines, but they are not limited by geography. Harter said the pantry once had a man who drove 50 miles one way to attend the monthly pantry, which is open the second Saturday of every month.
People can come in and “shop” the shelves with a pantry volunteer for their allotted items, which include fresh produce, eggs and meat. They can select items their family will use instead of being given a box of pre-selected items, Wollerton said.
While they wait their turn to shop, they're treated to doughnuts, coffee and warm conversation, Wollerton said.
“I think the people that come to us come because they know they'll be befriended,” Wollerton said. “Not just hurry about and get out the door. They'll find someone who cares about what their situation is.”
In addition to receiving cash donations, local businesses and grocery stores pitch in to donate food and goods, Wollerton said.
It takes about $1,500 a month to keep the pantry running, Harter said, so it is constantly raising funds.
“This is from a little church that maybe has 40 people that attend, and it's become a big outreach,” Harter said. “It's a tribute to that group that'll step out on faith that'll do something good. And the blessings just keep rolling in.”
Donations to the HOPE Food Pantry can be sent to the Zelienople Church of the Nazarene, P.O. Box 455, Zelienople, PA 16063. Put “HOPE Pantry” in the memo line of checks.
