South Park Meals on Wheels needs new home by end of the week
SOUTH PARK, Pa. (KDKA) — A Meals on Wheels program in South Park will serve its last meal unless it can find a new place to call home.
KDKA-TV reported last week that South Park Meals on Wheels would be able to stay at Grace Lutheran Church even after the church closed. But on Tuesday, KDKA-TV learned that is not the case.
Bernie Komoroski, 82, is a widower. He lives alone in an apartment complex in Baldwin, can't drive and depends on South Park Meals on Wheels.
"Every meal I get is usually fresh," Komoroski said. "The guys and the women who come every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I know them. I know their families. They know my family."
Grace Lutheran Church in South Park is closing at the end of the year. Going with it is South Park Meals on Wheels, which has worked out of the church's basement for more than three decades.
The group previously said on Facebook that the building's new owner would allow them to stay, but that was not the case. A letter from the church said the program needs to be out by Friday.
KDKA-TV asked executive director Pam Mason what happened. Did the new owner, Shiloh Church in South Park, change its mind or did Meals on Wheels misinterpret something?
"I am not sure," Mason said. "I think it's been a mixture. I think the communication has been bad. They had said they were interested in us being here, but then we had a meeting and it wasn't very clear."
Mason said after the church voted to gift the building to Shiloh earlier this month, she got a call from one of Shiloh's pastors saying she is excited to work with them. The pastor even volunteered at Meals on Wheels.
But in the end, Mason said a letter from Grace Lutheran said Meals on Wheels has to find somewhere else to go.
"These people don't deserve to spend Christmas without us feeding them. I am frustrated, extremely frustrated," Mason said.
As for Komoroski, he dreads thinking about not having Meals on Wheels.
"I don't cook a lot," he said. "It's frozen foods and canned goods for me. I hope they fight real hard for it because it's gotta be around here somewhere. Guys like me and people like me depend on it."
Mason said she was told the church's new owners want to use the space for an outreach group called Life Builders. KDKA-TV reached out to a pastor at Shiloh Church but hasn't heard back.
Mason says South Park Meals on Wheels became a non-profit organization last week, even calling for the help of Sen. John Fetterman to fast track the effort.