Helping Hands Food Pantry was originally founded to provide poverty alleviation in our community. We started in 1985 on Main Street in Boswell and then moved to the Stonebridge Trailer Court.
In 1988 we purchased our current location, the former Shonberg’s Department Store. For over 30 years, our building housed a thrift shop and food pantry on the first floor, and we utilized our basement to store surplus food and supplies. Things were a bit tight, but the two programs managed to coexist.
In March of 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything about the way we had always done things. We quickly realized that the safest way to serve our community was to move all aspects of our food distribution to the basement and offer a drive-through food distribution in the alleyway. This type of distribution proved to be a success, creating a more efficient way of doing things and less work for all involved.
In 2021 we received a grant from Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and our board voted to make these changes permanent. These funds allowed us to keep our drive-through food distributions based out of our basement and expand our thrift shop to take over the entire first floor. Our 100+ year old building received fresh paint, new lighting, new flooring, and various other repairs that were greatly needed.
While we have undergone many changes over the years, our mission has always stayed the same, to offer a helping hand to those that need it.
