Food warehouse marks its 20th anniversary

The need for its food programs continues to grow in Mercer County.
& lt;a href=mailto:gwin@vindy.com & gt;By HAROLD GWIN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Michael Wright thought the Community Food Warehouse of the Shenango Valley would fulfill its mission and fade away after a couple of years.
The executive director of the warehouse said he never thought that mission would last 20 years.
This year marks the agency's 20th anniversary and the mission hasn't been completed yet, Wright said.
"There's always going to be a need for this type of program," he said, adding that he doesn't expect to see it end in his lifetime.
Wright, 50, is the first and only executive director for the warehouse.
A long-term operation wasn't part of the original plan, he said.
"The organizers thought it would be needed for a few years as mill closings and other cutbacks began to hit the Mercer County area in the early 1980s, he said.
It was the Sharon Clergy Association, with the support of the local Catholic and Episcopal dioceses, that launched the program in 1983.
Those groups created a nonprofit, independent corporation to serve as a middleman in the food supply chain, a conduit to channel low-cost surplus and donated food to local food pantries, which dispersed it to people in the community.
Before its arrival on the scene, those pantries had to travel to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Erie to get food products for their programs, Wright said.
Supplies 23 pantries
The warehouse, with just three employees, operates out of an old bank building at 821 Broadway Ave. and is a supplier to 23 food pantries operating in Mercer County and eight other community service agencies in the county, such as Alternatives For Women: Advocacy, Resources and Education; Red Cross; and the Mercer County Association for the Retarded Inc.
At last count, the food it provides is going to support 3,337 Mercer County households. That's up from the 3,153 on the rolls last year and the 2,945 getting help in 2001, Wright said.
The latest figures have swollen because of a five-month strike at Wheatland Tube Co., which ended just a week ago, he said.
Funds
The warehouse has an annual budget of about $350,000, with about 10 percent of that coming from fund-raising efforts launched in a mail campaign each November.
It also gets grants and some local municipal support, but most of its money comes from the sale of food products.
Food it buys from America's Second Harvest Food Network at 6 cents a pound is sold to its client agencies at 16 cents a pound.
The warehouse is also able to buy food at below-wholesale costs and passes that saving along to the pantries with a 9 percent markup, Wright said.
Any food items donated to the warehouse are given free to the pantries.
Those agencies are in a particularly rough spot right now because Pennsylvania has yet to enact a new budget, something that should have been completed by July 1, Wright said.
Budget holdup
The warehouse is the administrator of about $180,000 a year in state grant money given to those pantries to help fund their operations, but that money is tied up in the state budget, he said.
"We gave every agency a line of credit this summer to keep them going," he said, adding that all have now exhausted that credit.
Most of them aren't buying much from the pantry right now, and nine or 10 of them enrolled in a United States Department of Agriculture free food program run through the warehouse are only getting those free items provided in the program, Wright said.
"We're celebrating 20 years of hard work, but it's never finished," he said, noting the agency is holding an open anniversary banquet at 6 p.m. Oct. 23 to thank the people who have been supporting it over the years.
Tickets are $15 and reservations should be made by Friday by calling the warehouse at (724) 981-0353.