South Hills Interfaith Movement introduces food lockers
Goal is to reach people not being served
BETHEL PARK – It can be hard enough to worry about not having enough to pay for groceries, and those worries multiply when individuals or families can’t make it to food pantries at regular distribution times.
To help ease that burden, the South Hills Interfaith Movement (SHIM) recently placed 16 temperature-controlled food lockers outside its building on South Park Road in Bethel Park. Families or individuals can place requests online or over the phone for food or other household necessities. The items they request will then be placed in a locker, where they can be retrieved using an access code.
“The goal is to reach people who are not being served,” according to Molly Penderville, the basic needs director for SHIM. She pointed out that some people can’t come to regularly scheduled food distributions due to work obligations or issues related to child care, transportation, disabilities or health.
“We have people from all sorts of backgrounds,” Penderville continued. So far, a “pretty consistent group of families” has been using the food lockers, she pointed out.
Temperature-controlled lockers have started to be used by food pantries over the last few years, with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank adding them, as well as the Jubilee Kitchen in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Each locker can function as a refrigerator, freezer or controlled-ambient unit. The temperature within each unit is adjusted and monitored remotely.
The food lockers were funded through individual donors, the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania and the Fred J. and Shirley H. Jordan Foundation, which is based in Pittsburgh.
For information on the food lockers or any of the other services provided by the South Hills Interfaith Movement, call 412-854-9120 or go online to shimcares.org.