LETTER: Disgusted with food bank funding cut
I read, with disgust and dismay, of the decision by the Republican majority county commissioners to send Washington County’s federal and state monetary allocation for the Washington County Food Bank to Allegheny County.
These monies are our tax dollars, paid in state and federal taxes and then returned to the residents of Washington County. Anyone who thinks that Allegheny County is going to take our money and then return it in more or better services for our residents is either naïve, delusional or has an agenda. I am constantly receiving requests from the food bank in Allegheny County for donations. If you think they aren’t going to take care of their own residents first, you are wrong. They are as strapped for cash as anyone. Every county is overwhelmed with the need to support food insecurity for their residents. The high unemployment effects every area.
I volunteer at the Washington County Food Bank warehouse. I volunteer at the truck-to-trunk distributions out of the Washington County Food Bank. I have seen, first hand, how hard they work and the good that they do. Understand that the people who work there are employed Washington County residents. They pay taxes here. They shop here. They contribute here.
I would suspect that Diana Irey Vaughn and Nick Sherman have never stepped foot in the Washington County Food Bank. To have them disrespect an agency that has been serving the citizens of Washington County for years is insulting to both the food bank, the many people I have met who volunteer their time there, and the Washington County residents who have benefitted from that work.
Unfortunately, I can’t make them give us our money back. I can, however, strongly suggest that no Washington County resident give their hard-earned money to Allegheny County’s food bank. If you can donate, please donate to the Washington County Food Bank. Because of this wrong-headed decision, we now have $280,000 of funding to make up.
Bev Ashton
Venetia