Donor backs out of new kitchen with Second Harvest, will operate independently

YOUNGSTOWN

Second Harvest Food Bank and a donor are no longer working together to open another feeding site in Youngstown.

Michael Iberis, Second Harvest executive director, on Thursday told The Vindicator that the donor has decided to complete and operate the soup kitchen, Skip’s Cafe, at 551 Mahoning Ave., without Second Harvest.

Plans for Skip’s Cafe, which were submitted by Boardman-based Cocca Development Ltd. to Youngstown’s Design Review Committee, were approved in early February.

At the time, Brice Jackson, project manager for Cocca Development, said work on the project would start in the spring and it would take three to four months to complete the construction. A 16,000-square-foot, long-vacant warehouse structure at the 1-acre site was demolished earlier this year.

The new soup kitchen will be built on land owned by the Anthony Cocca Family Foundation.

In December, Second Harvest announced its plans to open the kitchen after $750,000 was pledged to it from the Cocca family, initially an anonymous donor. The $750,000 would be used to build, equip and maintain the kitchen. A 6,560-square-foot food pantry would serve lunch daily.

The Anthony Cocca Family Foundation, however, established a no-cost lease arrangement for Second Harvest. Iberis’ understanding had been that the food bank would own and run the kitchen. Second Harvest provides food to 148 organizations in the Mahoning Valley’s tri-county region.

Second Harvest received $600,000 of the $750,000, Iberis said, and intends to use it to feed the hungry.

The nonprofit food bank recently was informed that Cocca would open the kitchen on its own.

Skip Barone, former kitchen manager of St. Vincent de Paul Society’s kitchen on Front Street, is to be the manager of the new soup kitchen. Barone did not wish to comment for this story.

Read more of the story in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.