Pittsburgh food bank installs lockers to make access easier
The 43rd annual KDKA-TV Turkey Fund is underway. Every Wednesday from now until Thanksgiving, we'll share stories about why your donations to the Turkey Fund are so important.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — All across the Pittsburgh area, more people than ever are struggling to make ends meet.
"The cost of everything has gone up enormously," said Ambridge resident Viola Wilson.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and its hundreds of community food pantry partners, like Center for Hope in Ambridge, are working tirelessly to meet that demand.
"It's a great place where community comes together to help each other," said Sue Otto, the director of Center For Hope.
The center is currently serving 1,100 people a month.
"A lot of people who held off going to pantries now cannot hold off. Some of our people ask if there is dinner tonight, not what's for dinner," said Otto.
The faith-based community center provides primarily food and clothing, but also offers a host of other services. One extra feature they have that other food pantries don't is an outdoor locker system. The food bank installed the first set of lockers at its facility in Duquesne, then selected Center For Hope to be the pilot location to test them out in the community.
"It's kind of neat. It makes it more convenient," Wilson said.
Wilson has been coming to Center For Hope for a little more than a decade. She and her husband are both retired, on a fixed income and are raising their 12-year-old granddaughter.
"The food that we get from here makes a huge difference," said Wilson.
They also homeschool their granddaughter. So thanks to the lockers, the Wilsons are able to come and get their food at a set time that works for their schedule.
"It's pretty quick as opposed to if you had to wait and walk through, not that that's such a bad thing," Wilson said.
Here's how it works: There are 40 lockers. Some are for shelf-stable food, some are for refrigerated food and some are for frozen food. Volunteers at Center For Hope stock them.
"It's whatever the center gives us, but it's always a blessing. The food is substantial," said Wilson.
Then families use a code to access their locker. Wilson's family is one of 80 families currently using them.
"Every family can be in this twice a month. Now they can also get produce out of here once a week. They can also go in and get bread and baked goods once a week," said Otto.
Another benefit of the lockers? It provides contactless delivery for people whose immune systems are compromised.
"We have one woman that has leukemia. She would love to be around us socially but she can't be. So, by coming to this locker or sending somebody to this locker for her, it works," Otto said.
The lockers have been so successful that the food bank plans to install them at other locations in the near future.
Meanwhile, Center For Hope is also a KDKA-TV Turkey Fund partner.
"The Turkey Fund is a very big deal. People appreciate it. They get so excited when you hand them the card. It's like giving them gold. Somebody loved you, somebody bought that card for you. That's really big," said Otto.
But that extra help at the holidays wouldn't be possible without your donations, something that is not lost on the folks at Center For Hope.
"All of us working together, it changes the world," Otto said.
And now is your chance to help by making a donation to the KDKA-TV Turkey Fund. Go to any PNC Bank, and they'll match all donations of $50 or more. Or you can donate digitally by texting "KDTURKEY" to 50155 or by going to kdka.com/turkeyfund.
We're also still accepting checks, just like Turkey Fund creator Al Julius did. You can mail them to P.O. Box Thanks, Pittsburgh, PA 15230.
And from all of us at KDKA-TV: thank you!
KDKA-TV's Managing Editor/Special Projects Executive Producer Corey Martin contributed to this story.