Chartiers Valley Salvation Army opens an extra day to help offset burden of expired SNAP benefits
For the first time, people can grab a cart and grocery shop at the Salvation Army Chartiers Valley Service Center in Carnegie twice a month instead of just once. They say it’s a way to offset the blow of the extra SNAP benefits that expired at the end of February.
Typically, The Salvation Army’s food pantry on Main Street in Carnegie serves 50 to 60 families on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.
“You just see the sadness that it’s something they used to be able to afford but now can’t,” said Director of the Salvation Army Chartiers Valley Service Center Bethany Bray.
With the decreased SNAP benefits, they’re expecting more than 80 families.
“We are also seeing that a lot of the families we serve are immigrants and refugees,” said Bray. “About 50 percent of the people who come through this food pantry don’t speak English.”
All SNAP recipients will see at least $95 less this month. That’s because the 15% boost in monthly SNAP benefits ended. Instead of getting two payments a month for groceries, it goes back to one. The state government says the average family in Pennsylvania will lose more than $180 a month in benefits. About 350,000 currently receive SNAP benefits in our region.
“We’re hoping our food pantry actually helps to supplement the other costs of living so that people can pay their rent,” said Bray. “They can pay their utilities. And they can pay those other necessary aspects of life that we can’t necessarily cover fully.”
Groceries were about 10% higher so far this year compared to last year. The Salvation Army Chartiers Valley Service Center says it’s also dealing with shortages. They’re typically able to get eggs from the Food Bank, but they haven’t been able to get eggs or baby products, such as diapers and formula.
“We get all of the produce for free from the Food Bank,” said Bray. “So that’s huge, but it’s some of those more costly items that we’re not seeing here.”
Bray says they’ve actually seen a recent increase in donations.
“We started another partnership with Aldi,” said Bray. “So we get donations from both Aldi and Target and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. We’re also seeing folks coming in to donate canned goods, dried goods. We’re hoping to see an increase as well. We have an area in the back called our ‘Target’ area where people can fill up a bag with all sorts of fun products.”
The Salvation Army also recently started cooking classes to help people learn how to use produce they may not be familiar with.
The pantry is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every first and third Wednesday.
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