Pittsburgh Pirates Team Up With Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank For Drive-Up Event
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank stepped up to meet people's needs this weekend amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday morning, volunteers from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Pittsburgh Pirates unloaded truckloads filled with more than 2,400 boxes of food items.
"We are providing meals for at least 800 families," said Brian Gulish, Vice President of Marketing & Communications for GPCFB.
This distribution was part of the food bank's "Produce to People Program" which is usually held on Pittsburgh's Northside.
Due to recent demand for food amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was moved to the North Shore where there's more space to accommodate the traffic flow.
Those who previously attended the food drive on the North Side were still serviced.
"We actually have shuttles that are running back and forth because we have walkers that attend these distributions so we want to make sure they can get the food if they don't have a vehicle to get down here," said Gulish.
Each person who pulled up to the drive received three boxes of food. The boxes were filled with shelf-stable, frozen and fresh foods.
There was limited person-to-person contact during the drive. The volunteers opened the vehicle doors, stuffed the food inside and the people drove off.
While volunteers from the Pittsburgh Pirates were there to help process the food donations, the team also contributed to the food bank financially, with a $50K donation.
"We work in an industry where we bring smiles to faces no matter what, and to do that in this moment means a lot," said Joel Gray, Manager of Community Outreach, Pittsburgh Pirates.
Representatives from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank said as of now their shelves are full and they are ready to serve the community.
Keep an eye on their website for upcoming distribution dates.