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SHIM, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank distribute essentials at Bethel Park High School

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Members of the Betler family get ready to load boxes of food into vehicles. From left are Joneen, Aubrey, Sylvie, Erin and Tim.

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South Hills Interfaith Movement volunteer Mandi Casey helps direct traffic in the Bethel Park High School parking lot.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Volunteers move a pallet full of food into position for the distribution.

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South Hills Interfaith Movement executive director Jim Guffey gives volunteers an orientation prior to the start of the food distribution.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Members of the Dietrich family load boxes of food into a vehicle. From left are Natalie, Danielle and Rich.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

Emily Maneval, educator with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, helps direct traffic.

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Harry Funk/The Almanac

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank has worked with the South Hills Interfaith Movement on three food distributions this year.

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Erin Betler reaches for a box to put inside a vehicle.

For their third food distribution of the year, volunteers with South Hills Interfaith Movement were starting to qualify as seasoned veterans.

SHIM teamed up again with Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to hold a drive-through event Dec. 12 in the Bethel Park High School parking lot.

“We do have our folks here from the food bank,” SHIM executive director Jim Guffey said to volunteers prior to the start of the distribution. “They’re here, but we’re going to be running this pretty much ourselves, because they think we’re a good crew. So we’re going to show them right.”

The volunteers proceeded to load vehicles with boxes of produce, dry items and dairy products, continuing Bethel Park-based SHIM’s tradition of neighbors helping neighbors.

Among those providing assistance were groups of family members, such as the Betlers of Mt. Lebanon.

“My father-in-law, Ray, has been volunteering with SHIM a lot lately, and we know that they did the food distribution in July and it seemed like it was a nice success,” Erin Betler said as her husband, Tim, and daughters, Aubrey and Sylvie, joined the box-loading effort. “Our daughters are ages 10 and 7. We like to get them involved in anything right now to give back. So they jumped at the chance to do this, and we’re having a nice time.”

Of course, Ray and his wife, Joneen, were part of the crew, as well.

As the effects of COVID-19 continue to impact food insecurity in the Pittsburgh region, SHIM and the food bank have been working to help South Hills families with their difficulties. Since March, when SHIM began offering drive-through pantries, the 52-year-old nonprofit has experienced a 28% increase in people seeking help with basic needs such as food and financial assistance.

Nearly half of the pantry visitors are new, further illustrating the impact of the pandemic in the suburban communities.

“As long as there is need, we’ll continue to have food distributions and food drives to help those struggling in the community,” Guffey said. “We served nearly 2,000 households at previous food distributions, so we know that families are still hurting.”

SHIM is a human services organization dedicated to improving the lives of people in need across the South Hills. This includes working to reduce the devastating effects of suburban poverty among low-income workers, the unemployed, families, single parents, senior citizens, women and the high concentration of refugee families in its service area.

For more information, visit shimcares.org or contact Seth Dubin, director of development, at sdubin@shimcares.org.

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