Feb 12, 2015 By Suzanne Elliott 3 min read

Bountiful Blessings started as a calling 14 years ago for Terry and Ron Orendi of Mechanicsburg.

Now, the Cumberland County charity whose mission is to assist working families and senior citizens during financial hardships by supplementing them with non-food items, has locations not only in Pennsylvania, but also in West Virginia and Maryland. This includes a location at the New Song Community Church on Library Road in Bethel Park, which opened in 2009.

“It was a calling from God,” said Terry Orendi, president of Bountiful Blessings, explaining the genesis of the organization. “When we first married, we struggled.”

Orendi said many people are surprised to find that food stamps do not cover items such as shampoo, toothpaste or even toilet paper.

“And food banks, for the most part, tend to focus on food,” she said.

Bountiful Blessings, which also has a locations in Brighton Heights in Pittsburgh’s North Hills, Dravosburg and Munhall Borough, requires anyone they help to show photo identification, such as driver’s license, with their current address. The person is then registered and can go inside the pantry area and pick out what they want, she said.

“We usually ask them to take just one item of something,” she said. “Like a tube of toothpaste. They can then come back in two weeks.”

“You shop like you’re going to the store,” she explained.

The Bethel Park location in the New Song Community Church is open every second and fourth Saturday of the month from 1-3 p.m. Orendi said Bountiful Blessings not only helps Bethel Park residents at that location, but other people as well.

“We don’t base what we do on income,” said Orendi, adding that 70 percent of the people they help at the Bethel Park location have a monthly income of less than $1,500.

“Someone could be making $50,000 to $60,000 a year, but may have a special needs child, or are helping their parents,” she said. “They may need some help themselves.”

In return for receiving non-food items, a recipient must donate three volunteer hours at the host site within a one-year period. For example, if someone is a painter, then he can paint a room, she said.

“We want them to use their trade,” said Orendi, who hopes to one day transform Bountiful Blessings into a national charity.

Peters Township resident Margie Webb is a member of New Song Community Church. Webb, a massage therapist, also collects items for Bountiful Blessings at her office on East McMurray Road and is trying to get other area businesses to do the same.

“People are listening,” she said.