Delmont food bank gains food windfall after winter storm fails to materialize

Stephen Huba | Wednesday, January 23, 2019 3:49 p.m.

Tribune-Review File Photo

Clients line up at the Westmoreland County Food Bank as volunteers distribute food in February 2017.

The fact that Winter Storm Harper was a bust turned out to be a boon for the Westmoreland County Food Bank.

The Delmont food bank got a sizeable donation from West Penn Power over the weekend when the storm failed to materialize and the utility was stuck with 16,000 pounds of unused food, CEO Jennifer Miller said.

The food, valued at $50,000, had been purchased to feed additional personnel who had been brought in to respond to outages caused by the storm, Miller said.

West Penn Power contacted the food bank Sunday, and the food bank made arrangements for pickup at a staging area at the former Sony plant in East Huntingdon, she said.

“We have a wonderfully robust partnership with West Penn Power … and that’s what brought this about,” Miller said, noting that parent company FirstEnergy holds a Harvest for Hunger food collection every March.

The food, including vegetables, meats, fresh fruit and prepared subs, will be distributed to area soup kitchens, shelters, churches and food pantries, Miller said.

Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Stephen at 724-850-1280, shuba@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shuba_trib.