Food Assistance & Distribution Services

Pittsburgh Region

• Allegheny County Department of Human Services: Food Assistance Programs
  Lists government food programs and nonprofit food assistance organizations.
• Allegheny Valley Association of Churches
  a 32 church member association that serves the community through a food bank, a hospitality network and other services.
• East End Cooperative Ministry (EECM)
  an interfaith coalition of 46 congregations, parishes, and institutions united to minister to the human needs in the East End of Pittsburgh. The people served are the frail, homebound elderly, the hungry, the homeless, and children and youth in underprivileged neighborhoods.
• Fishes and Loaves Cooperative Ministries Buying Club
  Fishes and Loaves is a cooperative, faith-based ministry whose current project is to make wholesome food available to residents in the Hazelwood area at reasonable prices.
• Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
  Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is a nonprofit organization that distributes over 1 million pounds of food and grocery products each month to 350 agencies in the 12 county region of Southwestern Pennsylvania, including soup kitchens, food pantries, women's shelters, homeless shelters, and other agencies serving those in need. Their 2006 Hunger Report: "Hunger and Food Insecurity in Southwestern Pennsylvania" is also online. Partner organizations are below:
  • Greater Washington County Food Bank
  • Fayette County Community Action Food Bank
  • Indiana County Community Action Agency(ICCAA)
  • St Vincent de Paul Society (Altoona/Johnstown)
• Just Harvest
  An Allegheny County-wide membership organization which promotes economic justice and works to influence public policy and to educate, empower, and mobilize the citizens of our community towards the elimination of hunger
• Lutheran Services Society of Western Pennsylvania
  The Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania, more commonly referred to as LSS, is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian, community-based provider of social services that enhance the quality of life and promote the dignity and independence of persons in need. It serves persons with the greatest needs and the fewest resources in western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, western Maryland and eastern Ohio. LSS maintains food and nutritional service programs; Meals-On-Wheels programs; and food distribution to low income families.
  • Meals on Wheels
    Through its 78 affiliated kitchens, LSS is the largest single provider of MOW in southwestern Pennsylvania, serving 2.2 million individual meals to over 8,000 recipients each year.
• Pittsburgh Public Schools: Application for Free and Reduced Meals
  PPS also offers Free Lunch @ Select Schools, as well as Universal Free Breakfast.
• Rainbow Kitchen Community Services
  Provides support for low-income families through programs that address hunger, childcare and job training and placement.
• Salvation Army, Western Pennsylvania Division
  Literally thousands of families apply to The Salvation Army annually for food, clothing, shelter and financial assistance.

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Pennsylvania

• Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture: Bureau of Food Distribution
  To help those in need, the PA Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Food Distribution helps to move food from the farm to the dinner table so more people can share in Pennsylvania's bountiful harvest. On their website they provide information about their various programs.
• Pennsylvania Department of Health
  • Women, Infants and Children Program
    A USDA program providing vouchers for designated nutritional foods for women and children at risk, administered by the county health departments.
• Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
    The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare provides SNAP (formerly food stamps) for low-income households in Pennsylvania.
• Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center
  Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center, formerly Pennsylvania Coalition for Food and Nutrition, is a non-profit organization working with partners across the Commonwealth to end hunger. Hunger Action's mission focuses on ensuring food security for all Pennsylvanians.

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Web Sites

• Feeding America
  Feeding America is a leading U.S. hunger-relief charity with a network of more than 200 foodbanks nationwide. The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is a member. You can find foodbanks by zipcode on this site.
• Food Research & Action Center: Federal Food/Nutrition Programs
  The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is a national nonprofit organization working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States.
• USDA Food Desert Locator
  In response to a 2009 report to Congress, Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences, the US Department of Agriculture has created a mapping tool for identifying food deserts -- low-income communities without ready access to healthy and affordable food.
• USDA Food & Nutrition Service: Nutrition Assistance Programs
  Information on federal programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly Food Stamps), WIC, school breakfast and lunch programs, summer food programs. From the Food and Nutrition Service of the US Department of Agriculture.
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
    As of Oct. 1, 2008, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program, reflecting their focus on nutrition and putting healthy food within reach for low income households.
    • Learn how to apply for benefits
  • School Meals
    Including National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, administered by local school districts.
• FAO: The Right to Food
  The Right to Food is the right of every person to have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active, healthy life. It is the right to feed oneself in dignity, rather than the right to be fed.