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A Hampton-based nonprofit and church have opened a food bank in West Deer to help low-income families.
Network of Hope Food Bank-Deer Lakes is run by Allison Park Church and Network of Hope, a nonprofit organization founded by church members.
It opened over the summer at 810 Little Deer Creek Valley Road, having evolved from emergency food box distributions started to help people at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our Network of Hope is associated with Allison Park Church, and Allison Park Church has five sister campuses. Just to help out, we opened a food bank distribution for prepacked food at each one of our campuses,” said Connie Lee, food bank director for Network of Hope.
“Then,” Lee said, “we figured out that at two of our campuses it wasn’t just a covid thing: It was an every day need. So we decided to make the Deer Lakes campus and then the Butler campus have permanent food banks.”
The Deer Lakes food bank is overseen by Allison Park Church Deer Lakes campus, which is just up the road inside Deer Lakes Plaza.
It’s open twice a month, and provides about 30 families with fresh foods such as eggs, cheese, butter, vegetables, fruits and prepackaged foods like cereals and canned goods. It also carries other necessities such as baby supplies and paper products.
Distributed items are donated or purchased through the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
Everything is free, but families must meet income requirements in order to qualify.
“We’re very fledgling at this point, but we are getting food out the door and our numbers are growing every week,” said Troy Tafel, Deer Lakes food bank director. “I would call it successful so far.”
Lee said Network of Hope looked at the geography and the demographics of the area, and reached out to other area food banks when making their decision.
“We called around to all the other food banks that were within five miles, and there didn’t seem to be a steady food bank that gave out a pretty good amount of food,” Lee said. “We wanted just to supplement and help the area, and then it ended up being that Deer Lakes really needed one. So we continued on with that one.”
People aren’t allowed inside the food bank because of the pandemic. Volunteers put items in their cars for them.
The food bank has shopping carts.
The plan is to eventually let people in to do their own shopping.
“There’s a lot of stories out there right now,” Tafel said. “Just ‘cause somebody pulls up in a nice car doesn’t mean they’re not in trouble.”
The food bank is collecting donations of non-perishable items for the upcoming holidays. Collection boxes are at various stores including Palmer Pharmacy, Family Dollar, Matt’s Sub Shack and Shop ‘n Save.
Tafel hopes to establish partnerships with local farmers and dairies. He said the food bank was able to get some donations of produce from local farmers over the summer.
“It’s pretty amazing how this thing just fell together,” Tafel said.
Madasyn Lee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at 724-226-4702, mlee@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Local | Valley News Dispatch
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November 08, 2020 at 12:01PM
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Allison Park Church, Network of Hope open food bank in West Deer - TribLIVE
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