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Local organizations work to keep poor fed, warm through season
YOUNGSTOWN
The holidays provide people with a welcome refuge from the cold, dark winter months, and no population is more in need of a safe haven than the poor and homeless.
Organizations ranging from singular church food pantries to multicounty soup kitchens provide for those in need throughout the Mahoning Valley, and the demand for their services increases as the year draws to a close.
Just outside downtown Youngstown, Our Community Kitchen, a soup kitchen and service provider for the poor and homeless, has been managing an increased flow of individuals as the low temperatures have forced people in off the streets.
Alan Wasylychyn, a staff member at Our Community Kitchen who has been serving those in need for the past 12 years, said that while there are more people who need their services during the holiday season, there are also more individuals willing to give of their time and their checkbooks.
“Especially around the holidays, we’ll have a lot of supporters who will donate entire meals to us,” Wasylychyn said. “We just had a pastor today who dropped off hams that he and his crew will be cooking and serving on Saturday.”
Thursday afternoon, a group of students from Kent State Ashtabula’s Hospitality Management program visited Our Community Kitchen to spend the day volunteering at the soup kitchen.
Skip Barone, the director of Our Community Kitchen, often works 10- to 12-hour days and spends much of his time during the holidays driving around and picking up food donations from across the Valley.
At 3 years old, Our Community Kitchen is one of the newest organizations in the area to take up the fight against hunger, but it is far from the only organization doing the work.
Jessica Anthony, the executive director of the Mahoning County District St. Vincent de Paul, said that it also sees an uptick in need during the holiday months. She attributes the increased need to larger heating bills and students being home from school on breaks, requiring parents to provide more meals for their children.
“Our heating bills double over winter, and when that strikes those in poverty, even a $10 to $20 difference in peoples’ budgets can have a huge impact on their ability to buy groceries,” Anthony said.
St. Vincent de Paul – which works through Catholic churches to provide people with food and other items – relies heavily on volunteers, often operating with only one staff member at each of its facilities in the region.
Becky Miller, the resource development manager for Second Harvest Food Bank, also said the organization sees a spike in need around the holidays tied to increased heating costs.
“This year, 35 percent of the people we’ll serve have to choose between heating their homes and eating,” Miller said. “Our organization exists so folks don’t have to make those choices.”
Second Harvest Food Bank provides food for 150 hunger relief organizations throughout Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties.
Second Harvest, St. Vincent de Paul, the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley and Our Community Kitchen are always accepting food and monetary donations and have opportunities for those wishing to volunteer their time during the holidays.