Dear Friend,
In the summer edition of News from the Heart, you’ll meet people of all ages that you’re helping.
You’ll meet young students you’re helping to feed through a school meals program. You’ll meet a middle-aged woman who was hit hard by recent reductions in SNAP benefits. And you’ll meet an Army veteran who has found the help he needs at one of our partner pantries.
And your kindness helps them all! You should feel good about that! I’m grateful for you.
I hope these stories inspire you to make a gift today. As always, every $1 you give helps provide 3 meals to neighbors in need. Thank you!
Gratefully,
Lisa Scales
President and CEO
I Need Food to Concentrate
A new school year is upon us, and that means a lot of hungry students.
More than 50,000 kids in southwestern Pennsylvania come from food insecure homes. And thanks to your support, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank has programs in place to help address that issue — starting bright and very early each weekday morning.
“We’re up at the crack of dawn and we’re the first employees in every single school building,” says Nicolle Bazant Pleil, Food Service Director in the Trinity School District. “Why do we get up so early? It’s because we can’t wait for them at breakfast.
“We want to see their smiles. We want to let them know how happy we are to see them.”
The feeling is mutual. The students are happy to see the cafeteria team, and to receive their first meal of the day — a meal that many of them might not get at home.
Going hungry during the school day is not a good thing.
“I need food to concentrate, or I just can’t do my schoolwork,” says one middle-schooler. Adds another, “My stomach hurts more and I can’t concentrate with an empty stomach.”
Research shows eating school meals can lead to higher test scores, calmer classrooms, fewer trips to the nurse and better attendance. The Food Bank’s Child Nutrition Team works with 83 school districts in 11 counties.
Thank you for supporting our school meals programs!
Filling the SNAP Gap
As the Food Bank’s Director of Government Affairs, Colleen Young spends a lot of time doing exactly what her title implies: Talking to government officials to advocate for policies that improve access to food for those who need it most.
But Young also has a message for you: Thank you! And she says your support is needed now perhaps more than ever, because government aid isn’t getting any better. Indeed, it recently got worse when SNAP benefits were significantly reduced. Today, the average SNAP participant receives just $5.45 per day.
Some officials are considering even deeper cuts due to the federal debt ceiling, “but we’re very opposed to that,” says Young, “because making sure people have enough money to afford groceries is not a political negotiating tool.”
The reductions came at a bad time since grocery prices are so high. About 25% more people are coming to the Food Bank for assistance, which means the Food Bank has to buy even more food — also at higher prices — to fill the gap.
“We’re over budget,” Young says. “We’re having to spend more than we did early in the pandemic.”
Young also encourages your support through advocacy — by urging your federal legislators to pass a strong 2023 Farm Bill to help people facing hunger.
Every five years, Congress has the opportunity to pass a farm bill that makes big investments in the critical federal programs that help individuals and families keep food on the table. This legislation is up for renewal in September.
To learn more, go to pittsburghfoodbank.org/get-involved/advocate
Just Scraping By
Lisa lives with her retired mother, and both receive SNAP benefits.
During the pandemic, the government increased those benefits significantly, given the special circumstances. Lisa says she was getting about $280 per month, and her mom about $180. “And we were able to make it,” she says.
But in March, those increased benefits were cut back to pre-pandemic levels. And for many folks, the reductions have been dramatic.
“Now I’m getting like $27 and my mom was cut down to $23,” Lisa says. “So yeah, what can you buy with $27 and $23? Nothing. It put us in a pickle.”
Lisa’s job alone wasn’t enough to support the two of them, so she works odd jobs around the neighborhood for some extra income … but it wasn’t enough.
Her mom came out of retirement and started working again … and it still wasn’t enough.
“It’s not easy,” Lisa says. “Every day we’re just scraping by. We’re always worried about if we’re going to eat dinner today or tomorrow.”
But friends like you have helped to ease some of their worries. Lisa now visits one of our partner pantries regularly to help put food on the table. It’s a new experience for her.
“It’s a shock,” says Lisa, adding that she gets about a week’s worth of food on her visits. “I’ve never had to rely on a food bank before. It was always for other people. But now I’m in it. Now we have to.”
She’s grateful that it’s set up in a way that she can maintain her dignity.
“It looks like a regular store,” she says. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. And anyway, you do what you have to do.”
And she knows she’s not alone.
“Everybody’s going through this,” she says. “You might think you’re the only one, but you’re not. It’s tough times for everyone.”
Fortunately, Lisa and her mom have friends like you who can help during those tough times. Thank you!
It’s a Big Help
When you support Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, you’re helping neighbors who have served our nation well.
Neighbors like Stephen, who served two years in the U.S. Army — including October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a dramatic showdown that had two global superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — on the brink of nuclear war.
Fortunately, that crisis was averted, and Stephen got on with his life. All was well until a recent difficult bout with COVID-19.
“It was kind of tough,” he says. “I don’t remember anything.”
Now fully recovered, Stephen occasionally finds himself in line for the veterans’ distribution at Families Matter Pantry, one of our partners. He says the promise of consistent food distributions in his community eases his family’s stress.
“It’s a big help,” he says, noting that he particularly likes the vegetable wrap and bananas. “Very good people do this.”
Count yourself among those “very good people,” because without your support, veterans like Stephen might struggle to find food.