Food recipients give back to community
Lou Ann Lavitsky of Smithfield helps a recipient with a box of produce. Lavitsky has been helping with the Produce to People food distribution for seven months.
Roberto M. Esquivel/HeraldStandard.com
The Rev. Adam Lawson, pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Brier Hill, watches as hundreds of cars make their way onto the Fayette County Fairgrounds for this month’s food distribution.
Two recipients leave the food distribution event with a wagon full of produce and prepackaged food items.
Roberto M. Esquivel/HeraldStandard.comrd.com
Hundreds wait with empty baskets for the food distribution to begin.
Roberto M. Esquivel/HeraldStandard.comrd.com
Don Johnson of Connellsville, a volunteer and former recipient, stacks bags of potatoes in preparation for the food distribution.
Gene Caringola, a volunteer with Produce to People, distributes heads of cabbage to recipients. Produce to People is a food distribution program sponsored by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank that operates throughout western Pennsylvania.
Roberto M. Esquivel/HeraldStandard.com
Recipients make their way collecting a variety of produce and packaged food items.
Hundreds wait in line for their turn to receive food items during the monthly Produce to People food distribution at the Fayette County Fairgrounds.
Donna Straight of Uniontown began receiving a monthly food basket from Produce to People in June 2011 after her husband, Ken, was laid off from his job as a concrete inspector.
“We needed a little extra help to get us through,” explained the 45-year-old homemaker and mother of four, including a 15-year-old daughter with special needs.
Three months after her family began receiving food, Straight started volunteering for Produce to People, a food distribution program, as does her husband, who works two part-time jobs, and her 17-year-old son Cody, who is released from school to perform community service. Donna Straight is the program’s volunteer coordinator and helps with crowd control. Ken Straight passes out food and Cody Straight is a runner, helping people carry food to their cars.
“We love it — absolutely love it,” said Straight. “There is no greater feeling than when you see someone smile and thank you — when they tell you, ‘This is feeding my family.”’
Produce to People is sponsored by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank that operates throughout western Pennsylvania. In Fayette County, the Rev. Adam Lawson, 34, pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Brier Hill, volunteered to organize the distribution, which started locally in May 2011. It is held the second Thursday morning of each month at the Fayette County Fairgrounds in Dunbar Township.
The November distribution offered items to help with a Thanksgiving dinner, including potatoes, onions, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin and carrots. Usually there is meat, but none was available this month, Lawson said.
Aimed at reaching people who fall through the cracks, the program is unique in that there are income guidelines, but no proof is required to receive help.
“This is a self-declared program. It’s designed for people who are receiving Social Security or food stamps or on any kind of assistance,” Lawson said. “But there are people who come who don’t have assistance but are having a hard time. There’s a story behind everybody. So many people are affected in ways we don’t understand.”
About 90 percent of the local volunteers are recipients, Lawson said. They include people who came for food and then offered to help, like Don Johnson, 60, of Connellsville, who is married and has four children and nine grandchildren. Johnson found himself in early retirement last year from his maintenance job at Highlands Hospital because of arthritis.
November was Johnson’s fifth time to receive food and his third time to volunteer.
“I figured while I was getting food I’d give a hand,” said Johnson, who is also a volunteer fireman in South Connellsville. “People are very nice, and it’s good food. I love to help people.”
Others were volunteers before they discovered they would be eligible for the program, such as Lou Ann Lavitsky, 44, of Smithfield.
Lavitsky has volunteered for 23 years at a food pantry in Outcrop, Springhill Township, and decided to help at Produce to People seven months ago. Lavitsky’s husband is a truck driver and she is a homemaker. They have five children — three of them at home. In November, Lavitsky brought her daughter Jo Kayla to volunteer as a runner for her senior project.
“I love it. I’m a people person,” Lavitsky said. “I usually get done around 12:30 (p.m.) but time flies. You don’t even realize.”
Lawson said the nearly 100 dedicated volunteers show up as early as 4 a.m. on distribution day to direct parking outside the fair gates and set up the food that has been trucked in by the Pittsburgh food bank.
“Some of our volunteers take off from work every month. It means something — the sacrifice you see,” he said, noting volunteers come from local businesses, social service organizations, churches and schools in addition to individuals. “We couldn’t do this without them. The volunteers are some of the best people of Fayette County.”
Lawson said another benefit to the program is putting recipients in touch with some human service agencies that have representatives on site to talk with individuals about programs offered.
The local distribution site supplies an average of 32,000 pounds of food monthly, with each recipient receiving about 50 pounds they carry home in a box or bag they supply on their own. Lawson said it is difficult to estimate how many people will show up monthly, but he said the program has grown from feeding 450 families to an average of 750.
The program works on a first-come, first-served basis.
For the November distribution, about 900 people showed up. Some did not receive an entire basket, but everyone did receive food, organizers said. Lawson said he would order more food for December.
“When it’s done, you’re so tired and then you can’t wait for the next one,” said volunteer Donna Martin of Uniontown. “I feel like we’re doing something for people without asking for anything in return, and that’s rare these days.”