St. Andrew parish partners with Greater Pittsburgh food bank to offer more outreach

The distributions through the Greater Pittsburgh food bank will be offered at the St. Andrew Apostle Parish in Charleroi from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on the second Tuesday of each month.

If there’s a need, St. Andrew the Apostle Parish will find a way to lend a helping hand.

Since the parish merged six years ago, a food pantry offering dry and canned goods and toiletries has helped the communities the church serves in Charleroi, Monongahela, Donora and beyond once a month.

The pantry was small and driven solely from donations by parishioners and other communities’ members, but the need is growing.

Last year, leaders from the church met with other groups and organizations to see what kind of services and support could be offered, or what was most needed, in the communities it serves.

That’s when Business Manager Joe Caruso connected with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and a new partnership was formed.

“It’s sometimes hard to realize exactly what the need is, you know,” Caruso said. “I grew up here, and for me it’s sometimes difficult to realize there is that kind of need here, but it’s the reality and we want to step in to help.”

After the connection was made between the parish and GPCFB, organizers got to work on the logistics of how a partnership might work.

“It’s been a long process, about six months, to really figure out what this looks like and how it will work,” Caruso said.

During the pandemic, the food bank started a drive-up distribution in Charleroi that was no longer the best platform to help reach the community.

“It was successful at first, but they told us they were looking for something inside, that way in case it’s too hot or too cold, or raining or snowing, there is a comfortable and accessible way to get food to the people who need it,” Caruso said. “After we heard that, we offered to be their distribution site, which really worked out because we have the space and all of the equipment to keep things fresh and safely stored between distributions.”

The distributions through the Greater Pittsburgh food bank will be offered at the St. Andrew Apostle Parish in Charleroi from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on the second Tuesday of each month.

The first one is set for Aug. 12.

That date was strategically chosen to coincide with the parish’s legacy food bank, which will continue to serve residents at all three parishes in Charleroi, Donora and Monongahela from 10 a.m. to noon on the second Wednesday of each month.

“Our legacy food bank helps 125 families, roughly, and we already have a set of volunteers that graciously dedicate their time to that, and we wanted to make sure we could do this with the volunteers we have, and the volunteers they have to really make this work,” Caruso said.

Together, they came up with a market choice concept where people will “shop” for their groceries and be granted portions based on the number of people in their household.

Anyone can receive food, but families are encouraged to complete a the Emergency Food Assistance Program self-declaration once per year, which is being completed this month.

“It was a nice opportunity to launch it in July, because that is when people register with the food bank, and gave us an opportunity to talk to people, see how many people they have in their household and really see the impact we needed to have,” Caruso said.

Caruso worked with the food bank to hammer out the details, and the first distribution was held last week at the Charleroi parish.

It was an overwhelming success.

“By the end of it we had served 199 families and 657 people,” Caruso said. “That just blew me away. We had 11 pallets of food, frozen meats, produce, milk and dairy, lots of fruit and vegetables. It was amazing.” Caruso helped as a shopper for families, who we able to walk through and choose things they like, or that fit their family’s needs.

“The entire church hall was transformed into a choice market, which was incredible to see,” Caruso said. “There was so much food coming in and I thought there was no way we would get rid of it all, but there was hardly any leftover. I was stunned. I just didn’t realize.”

The choice market distribution held on the second Tuesday of each month will not replace the parish’s legacy market, which will still be held monthly on the second Wednesday at each parish.

“We have volunteers who pack and organize on Monday, we will have the choice market here in Charleroi on Tuesday, and if we have leftover that food will be used for our legacy distribution across our three locations on Wednesday, but I don’t expect there to be a whole lot left earlier because the need is just so huge right now.

“I mean, we start at 9:30 in the morning, but people were lined up around the block at 8,” Caruso said. “And I wasn’t sure how it would go, but the food was brought in and within an hour everything was unloaded and set up to really feel like a market, and the food bank gave us a grant to help with supplies we would need like bags and things like that, carts for people to use, and our volunteers helped with shopping.”

In addition to the choice market and legacy food pantry, the parish also collaborates with the Washington Area Humane Society for a pet food pantry and Catholic Charities for a diaper bank.

The pet food pantry kicked off in March and has helped hundreds of pets each month.

The diaper bank opened in January and serves about 60 families.

Right now, there are about 37 volunteers, but Caruso said with the new distribution they could use about a dozen more.

“We’re just a bit short handed, so we would love to have some people who have some spare time and want to help their community volunteer with us for the choice market,” Caruso said. “It’s fulfilling and you won’t believe the impact it has.”

Dry good and toiletries can be donated directly to the parish to help support its legacy food bank.

Pet supplies can be given to the humane society directly by calling 724-2587794.

Diapers can also be donated to Catholic Charities directly to help Mon Valley families by calling 724-2287722.

Anyone interest in volunteering can call one of the parish offices or email communications@ saintandrewmidmon. org.