Greater Pittsburgh community Food Bank prepping for big summer of distribution

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – This summer, around the Pittsburgh region at The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, there is a lot going on and there is even a new face to meet.

On Friday, the Greater Pittsburgh community Food Bank announced a large, first of its kind, summer distribution effort in Butler County.

Butler County is unique this year in that it is the only county in the food bank service area without any partners hosting summer youth café locations for kids.

These youth café sites provide federally funded meals to kids 18-and-under at no cost.

“Families report spending up to $200 more per kid, per month, when their kids are at home for the summer. In Pennsylvania, almost 1,000,000 kids eat lunch every single day. And so, there is a real need when those school meals go away to have summer distributions and summer youth café sights start up to make sure that those kids have access to nutrition over the summer,” said Kelsey Gross, director of child nutrition programs at GPCF

In addition to the work being done in Butler County, the food bank has also started opening their summer youth café sights around other parts of the region, and to help spread the word about the cafes and summer nutrition is Spike, their new mascot.

“We are so excited to unveil Spike, our rocking pineapple,” Gross said. “This year is our first year with a really awesome mascot that will be out at lots of our summer youth café sites, just making sure kids are having a great time and going out to our kick offs as well.”

You can view information about the Butler County Summer Drive-Up Food Distribution events and more, at this link.