Growing Strong: Waynesburg University students volunteer at food bank, community garden
Corner Cupboard Food Bank
Three groups of Waynesburg University students recently donated their time to Corner Cupboard Food Bank, according to Candace Webster, Executive Director for Corner Cupboard.
For three hours on March 16, students from the WU women’s soccer team and Bonner Scholars rolled up their sleeves to help the food pantry. Webster said the group included about 25 volunteers.
For another three hours on March 23, about 20 members of the WU football team and its coaching staff also volunteered.
“Students worked in the community garden, prepping our raised beds for planting. They also helped to build pallets of food to be delivered to upcoming pantry distributions, reorganized our walk-in freezer and helped to set up our conference room for an upcoming event,” Webster said.
The community garden project began in 2016, according to Webster. Webster said she was hired in the fall of 2015, and she immediately started looking for ways to involve the community in the charity.
“I had read a lot about community gardens and thought that this would be a great way to not only provide additional produce for our food distributions, but also inspire self-sustainability within our community and encourage volunteering,” she said.
Currently, there are eight raised beds in the community garden and several smaller beds along the fence line, Webster said.
During the growing season, volunteers prepare, plant and harvest produce from the garden, which then goes out to 11 food pantries and is distributed to families in need, according to Webster.
There is also a compost bin on the property. Any produce that is unfit for the pantry to distribute can be added to the compost, which will eventually break down and be used in the garden to grow more vegetables.
“One thing, among many, that I love about this project, is that since we began the garden, there have been so many different local groups, individuals, organizations, businesses, schools involved with volunteering with the garden. And the garden is a stepping stone to educating our community members about our organization, what we do, and how it all works,” Webster said.
She added that the Penn State Master Gardeners are consistent volunteers and have helped to make the garden a success.
Corner Cupboard was founded in October 1992 and is the only food bank in Greene County. It is responsible for providing regular monthly food boxes to individuals in need inside the county.
According to its website www.cornercupboard.org, it includes more than 150 volunteers who work with the pantries to help pack and distribute monthly food boxes to about 2,000 individuals every month.
The pantry feeds more than 2,000 people each month through a network of 11 pantries throughout the county.
The food comes from farmers, retailers, manufacturers, food drives and government commodities. Products arrive at Corner Cupboard and are sorted and repacked into pantry-sized orders.
Pantry orders arrive at the pantries each month and are repacked into individual and family-sized boxes. Those in need visit their local pantry and receive food boxes.
Corner Cupboard includes a variety of programs, designed to meet the needs of those facing food insecurity. Two of those include:
-Emergency Boxes is a program designed as a “one-time use” program, to help individuals and families in special circumstances who need temporary food assistance as an urgent need, rather than on a regular basis.
-The Kid’s Bags Program distributes kid-friendly food items to each child in our Pantry Network during high-risk hunger times of the year, when children are not in school (summer and holiday breaks).
Corner Cupboard is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 881 Rolling Meadows Road in Waynesburg. Saturday sorts and evening sorts may be scheduled for groups.
For more information, visit www.cornercupboard.org or call 724-627-9784.