Members from the nonprofit group Feeding the Spirit are used to sitting down with nearly 100 people each week for their annual free meal at Otterbein United Methodist Church in Greensburg.

Since the covid-19 pandemic began, that hasn’t been an option — but it didn’t stop the nonprofit’s members, who organized a regular Saturday food distribution at St. Clair Park.

“We thought we’d have to just do the frozen meals, but local restaurants really stepped up and started providing us with hot meals we could give to people,” said Deb Thackrah of Greensburg, Feeding the Spirit’s founder and executive director. “They were wonderful, but we couldn’t expect them to just keep providing those.”

Now, thanks to a $5,000 grant secured through Penn Township nonprofit Protect PT, Feeding the Spirit will be able to continue providing hot meals throughout the summer.

“Now, we choose one restaurant per week,” Thackrah said. “We love it because it allows us to help local restaurants as well.”

The funding, made available by Protect PT through the Ohio River Valley Covid-19 Response Fund of the Community Foundation of the Alleghenies, targets local organizations working to provide crisis relief to individuals and families. With this funding, Feeding the Spirit will be able to provide over 100 hot meals weekly to those facing financial hardships and food insecurities as a result of the pandemic.

“We are humbled and encouraged by the outpouring of support of our community,” said Feeding the Spirit board member Judy Knapp. “We have seen an increase in need among our neighbors, and the additional funding we have received has enabled us to continue to meet the increased needs of those that have been directly affected by the pandemic.”

Thackrah estimated that at their peak, Feeding the Spirit volunteers distributed between 400 and 500 meals per week.

“What we noticed very early on was that it wasn’t just our normal folks,” Thackrah said. “There were a lot of different faces and new people. We’re seeing more of a need from families.”

In recent weeks, Thackrah said things have leveled off.

“We’ve seen it decrease a little bit, closer to 200 or 300 meals, and we’re happy about that,” she said.

Board member Lynn Wagner thanked both local businesses and community members for helping those less fortunate among them.

“We had no idea the community would rally around us and offer donations and assistance to make our outreach stretch further,” Wagner said. “We are beyond grateful.”

For more, see FeedSpirit.org.

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