Agency fights hunger in Lawrence County

staff report

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Hunger is growing in Lawrence County, but a Pittsburgh nonprofit agency is trying hard to meet the need with $210,000 worth of food distributed here in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Sue Smith, regional outreach manager of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, said that in August there were 65 first-time participants in “Produce to People,” a monthly food-distribution program launched in June 2007.

The program brings 23,500 pounds of food to the county one Saturday each month to be distributed out of St. Vitus Church on South Mercer Street. Participants get 50 pounds of food. An average of 1,270 families take home the 23,500 pounds of food monthly.

During the last two years, there has been a 14 percent increase in demand for food here, Smith said. She is not certain what the food bank will receive once the state passes a budget. But she said the county has been awarded $8,000 in federal stimulus funds for food for the fiscal year that began July 1.

In addition, there are numerous monthly food-distribution sites and food banks in the county, ranging from senior-citizen housing facilities to municipal buildings.

Smith said that until the state passes a budget, the food bank has extended lines of credit to all its “partners.”

The food bank serves six counties in southwest Pennsylvania.

For a complete listing of the county’s food distribution sites, go to www.pittsburghfoodbank.org. To find local food assistance, call (412) 460-3663.