Dec 18, 2020 4 min read

Two of three Washington County Commissioners voted in favor Thursday of sending allocations of state and federal money to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank rather than to the local one in Washington County.

The vote by Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan and Commissioner Nick Sherman will send a little more than $280,000 from the federal Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Pennsylvania State Food Purchase Program to the Pittsburgh organization.

The two commissioners cited an outcry from constituents, especially in the Mon Valley, over the closure of local food pantries and lack of transportation to get to consolidated locations.

“Donora and Somerset were particularly angry about this,” Irey Vaughan said after the meeting.

“We had to reach out for other options about how we can best serve those communities,” Sherman added.

“These are just two contracts,” Irey Vaughan continued. “The Washington County Food Bank we will continue to support, however, we need to make sure our citizens are receiving as many grant funds and services to meet their needs. It will allow us to reinstate some of the distribution sites that have been eliminated over the last two years.”

The Greater Washington County Food Bank has reduced 22 local food pantries to nine.

“Our job as commissioners, when we are the stewards of these contracts and we know that we can provide more product and provide that additional product in more communities, we have to make that change. That is the responsible thing for us to do in serving our constituents,” Irey Vaughan said.

Commission Vice Chairman Larry Maggi voted against allocating the money to the Greater Pittsburgh organization based in Duquesne.

“I’ve not gotten an outstanding amount of complaints about the food bank,” Maggi said. “I can’t see how that entity (in Allegheny County) can serve our constituents better.

“As a county commissioner, I want to keep business local, I want to keep our services local. I want to do business with people within the county as much as possible.

According to Kimberly Rogers, Washington County human services administrator, “Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank will administer all food obtained through these two county contracts to distribute and exclusively serve Washington County residents.”

A former commissioner also weighed in as a private citizen via Zoom at the Thursday morning meeting. Harlan Shober of Chartiers Township asked that the commissioners continue to examine the issue before making a change.

The vote, however, took place a short time later.

Lisa Scales, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, said in a news release, “Our focus remains the same, which is to understand the needs of the communities we serve and to strengthen our food assistance network.

“That includes working directly and collaboratively with the food pantries in Washington County to develop a shared vision and plan to meet the need for food assistance in the county.”

Rogers said recipients will not immediately see a difference in the food programs, but a director of the Pittsburgh organization outlined the next steps.

“We need to speak to the pantry network to understand the level of service they’re providing versus the need that they’re seeing from the community,” said Charlese McKinney, director of partner network programs for the Greater Pittsburgh food bank.

“We will meet with entire network as a whole but also each individual pantry member and compare it with overall needs of the county to identify the gaps in service and determine the best way to address it.”

Economic consequences of the novel coronavirus pandemic have magnified the needs of hungry people.

State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a news release that before COVID-19 struck, nearly one in 10 Pennsylvanians were at risk of going hungry. The economic fallout of the pandemic added 630,000 people to those in need of food.

The administration of Gov. Tom Wolf noted in a news release Thursday that the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System has funded the processing and distribution of more than four million pounds of surplus food from farmers in the state which have gone to food banks in all 67 counties.

Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding of $10 million was coupled with $1.5 million in state funding awarded under the 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Bill, which was renewed in the 2020-21 state budget.

Pennsylvania also invested $10 million of CARES Act funding to a Fresh Food Financing Initiative to increase the capacity of retailers in low-income communities.

Applications for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance programs can be submitted online at www.compass.state.pa.us.