Creating food equity through action in the Triboro Ecodistrict

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Alyse Horn-Pyatt

The Triboro Ecodistrict has had its fair share of challenges in its mission to increase sustainable community development; with six shared lenses of promoting equity, food, water, energy, air quality, and mobility, the initiative has made significant strides improving Millvale, Etna, and Sharpsburg’s quality of life.

But the COVID-19 crisis has brought new, and amplified existing, difficulties for the three boroughs, the foremost of each being access to food. Therefore, these communities are leveraging years of collaboration to create equity through action.

When Pennsylvania’s first shelter-at-home order was put into place by Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine on March 23, seven counties, including Allegheny, were forced to close nonessential businesses. All 67 counties were under the order by April 1.

In the last five weeks, 1.5 million Pennsylvanians have filed for unemployment.

Physical distancing is the only proven way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and “decrease the anticipated spike,” which would overwhelm hospitals and significantly weaken healthcare workers ability to provide adequate medical care to individuals, according to the American Medical Association.

Sheltering at home is saving lives, but an afflictive side effect for nonessential workers is that most are not receiving steady income.

“A lot of people will say to me, ‘My neighbor just lost their job,’ and I tell them to come up to the food bank. They don’t need to be registered with us right now. Just come in and we will feed you, that’s what we’re here for,” said Alexis Weber, Pantry Manager at Bread of Life Food Pantry in Etna.

Weber said during a regular month the food pantry will serve 105 families. During April they served 134 including 37 new families. In an effort to reduce exposure, grocery items are prepackaged and brought out to the car. Each box is assembled with the intention to create a well rounded selection for families including canned food but also fresh fruits, eggs, meats and cheeses.

The Boys & Girls Club in Millvale has been catering to a younger audience and has a bit of a different set up for individuals, but Youth Development Coordinator Kate Davis said it is working out well.

Seven days a week from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. the Boys & Girls Club has a share table setup with groceries and other items that anyone in need can take, and breakfast and lunch grab bags are available for any child under 18.

“Shaler [Area School District] has been bringing 125 meals a day and all of them are being taken,” Davis said. ‘These lunch ladies [making these meals] don’t get credit because they’re not in the public eye, but they are amazing.”

The Boys & Girls Club have received donations for local businesses regularly in the past, and some have been able to give more in recent weeks, like Sprezzatura, Jean-Marc’s Bakery, and 412 Food Rescue. Davis said those donations are added to the share table or the kids meal bags.

“Businesses have been reaching out every few days to check in,” Davis said. “Millvale is a very strong community, and you notice that from all of the floods and how it just seems to come together [in a time of need].”

Bonnie DeMotte, Executive Director of Second Harvest in Sharpsburg, said the strength of the Triboro communities, individually and together, has been a silver lining during the response to the pandemic.

“Before this, I don’t think all the different leaders of these groups knew each other as well and certainly we are now all more aware of each [organization].” DeMotte said. “Now we can really help each other in these unprecedented times.”

DeMotte has partnered with Roots of Faith Director Kathleen Stanley to assist in food distribution to those in need and it is the only site currently in the borough. The extension of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank in Sharpsburg is connected to St. Vincent DePaul, which is part of the Catholic Diocese and closed indefinitely due to COVID-19.

Second Harvest and Roots of Faith are also working with Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization Executive Director Brittany Reno who has been writing grant applications in order to get more resources to the program.

Every week, DeMotte said they have been providing over 100 bags of food for individuals who are able attend the walk up distribution. They have also been delivering 300 bags to seniors and at-risk residents, as have Bread of Life Food Pantry and the Boys & Girls Club.

“It’s people helping people, you know?” said Weber. “You just don’t know how strong and caring you are until you get in a crisis like this and everyone comes out. It’s like both sides of the coin. The people who can give, give. The people who need to receive, receive.”

“We’re all praying for this virus to be over, but it’s going to be a long haul.”

Each organization is in need of food or monetary donations to keep up with demand. If you are able, please send checks or drop off donations to the locations below. If you are in need of food, there are resources below for meal distribution dates. If you are in immediate need of food, please call Alexis Weber at (412) 721-3343.

Bread of Life Food Pantry in Etna

Food donations:

Monday’s from 2-4 p.m.
Wednesday’s from 6-8 p.m.
Friday’s from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

All Saints Activities Building
Church Alley between Wilson Street and Dewey Street
Follow Dewey St from Grant Ave, making a right on Wendlin Street, a Right on Wilson Street, and a Right on Church Alley.

Monetary donations:

94 Locust St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15223

Boys & Girls Club in Millvale

Food and monetary donations:

100 Howard St.
Millvale, PA 15209

Second Harvest + Roots of Faith in Sharpsburg

Food donations:

(Anytime)
101 Cabin Lane
Pittsburgh, PA 15215

(Wednesday’s only from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.)
800 Main St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15215

Monetary donations:

800 Main St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15215

Christ Lutheran Church in Millvale

Monetary:

Online or sent to 917 Evergreen Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15209

North Hill Community Outreach

Food donations:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
1975 Ferguson Road, Allison Park, PA 15101

Monetary donations:

Online or call Lin Kostura at (412) 487-6316, opt. 1 x 3131

Resources for residents in need:

Dinners for Neighbors

Wednesday
5-6 p.m.
Fugh Hall
27 Crescent Ave.
Etna, PA 15223

Dinners for Friends

Tuesday
5:30-6:30 p.m.
Blawnox Fire Department
376 Freeport Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15238

Wednesday
5:30-6:30 p.m.
The Sharpsburg Family Worship Center
200 8th St., Sharpsburg, PA 15215

Bread of Life Food Pantry Etna

Wednesday, May 13
10 a.m.- 12 p.m.

Wednesday, May 20
1-3 p.m.

Wednesday, May 27
6-8 p.m.

94 Locust St. Etna, PA 15223

Boys & Girls Club

Meals for children under 18

Share table with groceries and other items for anyone in need

Monday-Sunday
11 a.m.-1 p.m.

100 Howard St. Millvale, PA 15209

Second Harvest & Roots of Faith

Every Wednesday
Delivery to seniors and at-risk residents (email kathleen.stanley@faithfoxchapel.org)

Every Thursday
10 a.m.-1 p.m.
800 Main St. Pittsburgh, PA 15215

Christ Lutheran Church

917 Evergreen Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15209
Call 412-821-4300 or email Christlutheran917@gmail.com for mask and food distribution information

North Hill Community Outreach

Wednesday, May 20
10 a.m.-1 p.m.
416 Lincoln Ave. Millvale, PA 15209
(Serves the 15209 zip code)

SNO secures home base for sustainable, civic engagement initiatives

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Alyse Horn-Pyatt

Above: Brittany Reno, Executive Director of Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization, standing outside of the building that SNO closed on in September 2019.

During the summer of 2013, Brittany Reno was rounding out her first year of AmeriCorps and was given the opportunity to do a service project in the neighborhood she had moved to earlier that year: Sharpsburg.

The event, dubbed Smiles and Tiles Day, was a public art project that brought kids and their family members out to the 16th Street Park to paint ceramic tiles that would become a mural, which was put on display at the community library and is still there today.

“People were so excited about it and wanted to do more, and everybody had all these great ideas,” Reno said. “I wanted to give them some structure to make the ideas happen, so I started Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization (SNO).”

It began with a two-page Word document and a board of local volunteers, with Reno leading the organizing. In 2016, SNO received funding for operations and programs from the UPMC Health Plan, First National Bank, Giant Eagle, and the Hillman Foundation, and the board created a hiring process to find an executive director. Reno, who was not on the board, applied, interviewed, and got the job.

Sharpsburg Mayor Matthew Rudzki said before SNO there were residents and allies putting in work to rejuvenate the borough, but there was “trouble getting traction.”

“What SNO brought to the table was an umbrella organization with terrific leadership to rally that energy into one focused goal: the revival of our community,” Rudzki said. “The pieces of the puzzle were always there; we needed the glue to get them to stick together.”

Until recently, Reno was running the organization out of a home office and traveling to meetings around the community every day—literally “meeting people where they were”—or holding them at Brother Tom’s Bakery, the Sharpsburg Community Library, and other local spots. She said she felt like a “nomad,” but that it felt good to have people visiting the Sharpsburg business district and for her to “bring people here and show them everything I love about Sharpsburg and the great people who live here.”

Reno giving Triboro Ecodistrict Advisory Board members a tour of the buildings upstairs apartment.

Today, Reno will soon be able to invite visitors to 511 S. Main St., the location of the building that the neighborhood organization closed on this September and will use as the home base for its operations and community organizing workshops in the form of the new Sharpsburg Sustainability & Civic Engagement Center. The building itself was built around 1900 and the last occupant was a small business owner who made significant repairs to make the building more accessible and safe. Along with providing the organization a space to hold day-to-day activities, there is also an upstairs apartment that SNO will rent out to cover the mortgage payments and eventually “become a source of sustainable unrestricted revenue” for SNO, Reno said.

Shanna Carrick, SNO Board President, said a handful of other locations were considered, but in the end they ended up finding “the perfect building.”

“For the last two years we’ve been saying we wished we had a space to hold public meetings with residents to talk about the ecodistrict and the different needs we have in the community,” Carrick said. Now, thanks to support from the Hillman Foundation, UPMC Health Plan, and First National Bank, they have that space.

As well as a meeting place for people to organize and advocate for things they want to see in the community and region, the building will serve as an example for solar energy and flood retrofitting, and give residents access to real-time air quality data. Reno said SNO is working with EIS Solar, who has created a layout for the solar panels and previously completed the installation at the Sharpsburg Community Library, but the roof will be replaced before the installation in the spring.

“We really want this space to provide an opportunity [for the community] to interact with new, green technologies and see what they’re all about and how they can help people beyond just being good sustainability investments for the environment,” Reno said.

Using solar to power the building will reduce operating costs and provide results comparable to the outcomes expected by the solar installation on the Sharpsburg Community Library. Every dollar saved through solar can be reinvested back into the community resulting in longer library hours or more funding for programs.

Reno said she is excited to demonstrate how solar can be a viable source of energy for Sharpsburg and showing how much energy will be generated minute-by-minute, and in turn how much money is being saved, as well as how much the installation is saving the building in carbon dioxide emissions.

These initiatives fall in line with the Sharpsburg Community Vision Plan, which was built over two years of local stakeholder engagement on the foundation of the Sharpsburg and Triboro Ecodistrict priorities including: equity, food, water, energy, mobility, and air quality.

“The plan is for this space to be a real civic engagement hub where people can learn about the community vision plan, get more involved in the community and local government, learn about resources for starting a local business, and learn about green technology and different opportunities for jobs and education in that field,” Reno said. “They can share their feedback on the plan and share their knowledge about life in Sharpsburg, the history of Sharpsburg, or whatever it is that they’re passionate about.”

After SNO secures its occupancy permit, the organization will open its doors with a community celebration and open house in the winter. Supporters can help cover start-up costs for SNO’s Sharpsburg Sustainability & Civic Engagement Center at 511 S. Main St. by making a tax-deductible donation at https://www.paypal.me/sharpsburg or by sending donations to 511 S. Main St.