Hungry to Help
By definition, food insecurity describes any disruption to food intake resulting from a lack of money or resources.
In daily living, that translates to many things. A fridge absent milk and eggs. A shortage of bread on store shelves. A meal or two less a week to make ends meet.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put more pressure on Butler County organizations that strive to bridge that gap for neighbors in need.
Sandra Curry, community partnership manager for the county's Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, said the county distributed food to about 1,000 vehicles in its now-familiar drive-through setup in April.
“We saw pretty consistent numbers in the spring,” Curry said. “We did not do (this setup) prior to COVID.”
Over the summer, distribution numbers dropped. Now, they're starting to rise again.
That fluctuation is unique to 2020, according to Curry.
The way to fight food shortages is by providing resources at a very local level, community leaders believe.The Butler County Food Bank, working with ANR, helps to distribute donations from different entities to 30 county food banks, to the tune of $20,000 worth of food for 3,500 families a month.Jordan Hartman, distribution manager for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, has been coordinating the food distributions once a month since July. Hartman said more than 600 boxes of food were given out at the November event.
One of the food banks under the county's umbrella is the Feed My Sheep Food Cupboard in Slippery Rock.“We were a shop-thru cupboard,” said Carol Lambert, coordinator for Feed My Sheep. “Because of the pandemic, people come to the window.”Lambert said she's been volunteering with the food bank since 1998. The past 22 years have provided their own set of circumstances, but 2020 has been extremely abnormal.For one thing, pandemic safety concerns have forced food banks to not accept new volunteers.In Slippery Rock, Lambert said she'd working with a skeleton crew.“It's the same people all the time,” Lambert said. “If one of us goes down, we'll have to shut down.”The Southwest Butler Food Cupboard in Lancaster Township also has been running with the minimum number of volunteers.Erin Makowski, who became food cupboard director this summer, said the cupboard feeds anyone in Butler County and has never turned someone away.“Our shelves will clear,” Makowski said. “We go through over 300 boxes of cereal a month.”
Once a month, the Southwest Butler Food Cupboard distributes food to families.“We only run on donations,” Makowski said. “We are actually seeing a huge increase in donations.”Without extra volunteers to assist with collection and distribution, many food cupboards are looking to their communities for answers.Joe Harmanos is a North Catholic sophomore who helped out the Southwest Butler Food Cupboard this spring.Because he enjoyed the experience, Joe decided on Thanksgiving to collect 100 boxes of cereal for the cupboard's December distribution.As of Thursday night, he had 106.“It's been very successful so far,” Joe, the son of Mark and Jennifer Harmanos, said. “It's great.”The cereal collection may have started with Joe, but he said it grew into a community effort. His triathlon team heard about the cause and helped spread the word.Joe stopped collecting cereal Friday. Now, he'll figure out how to get donations, some from out of state, to the cupboard.Joe said what surprised him the most about his cereal collection is how quickly people were willing to contribute.“It's been a tough time this year,” Joe said. “It's just so great to help out so many people.”
In November, Makowski said the Lancaster Township food cupboard helped 130 families, which means it fed about 325 people.Makowski said in October, the distribution rate was 95 families. The majority of the people Makowski said she's seeing are 30 to 50 years old.“It's all due to COVID,” Makowski said.Lambert said Feed My Sheep mostly serves an elderly or disabled population. So far this year, she said weekly distributions are lower than normal. In November, the cupboard helped 86 families.“It went down,” Lambert said. “People were getting extra money in their food stamps ... and unemployment.”Lambert is concerned numbers will spike sharply over the next few weeks, as government aid tapers off and families again face financial shortfalls.“I don't want anybody to go without food,” Lambert said. “This community is extremely generous. I can't say enough.”Curry said there may be another challenge ahead.ANR works in partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which distributes mostly highly processed foods. As a result, the availability of fresh produce and meat has dropped.“We're going to try to fill that hole,” Curry said.Specifically, Curry said the county food bank and ANR are planning to establish community gardens next year.Curry said while these will be managed by staff, volunteers certainly will be welcome when the proper time comes.That will be good news for volunteers who haven't been able to help as much this year as they would have liked.
Joe's collection campaign wasn't the only one that's helped the Southwest Butler Food Cupboard meet local needs this year.Makowski said an area youth group recently asked people in their community to fill paper bags with foodstuffs or hygienic materials and leave them on their porches to be collected.This provided the Southwest Butler Food Cupboard with nine shopping carts of extra donations.In the middle of the pandemic, Makowski said, there's much generosity to be found.“It's really brought back family and being a community,” Makowski said. “There's so many opportunities.”The Alliance for Nonprofit Resources can be reached at 724-431-3663.The Southwest Butler Food Cupboard can be reached at 724-453-4184. The Feed My Sheep Food Cupboard can be reached at 724-421-5274.
