PITTSTON TWP. – Each year since 2017, July 20 celebrates Pennsylvania Day to honor Pa.’s history, cultural heritage and contributions to the development of the United States.

America250PA’s 2026 Pennsylvania Day theme is “Pennsylvanians Helping Pennsylvanians” through acts of service across the Commonwealth.

Volunteers participated in projects focused on food insecurity and neighborhood beautification in partnership with Feeding Pennsylvania, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, The GIANT Company, Natural Food Group, EQT Corporation, and PennDOT.

Locally, two shifts of volunteers, overseen by America250PA members, filled boxes of food at the Commission on Economic Opportunity (CEO) Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank for distribution to Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wyoming Counties.

Volunteers from America250PA, Wright Center, Daughters of the American Revolution, WVIA-TV, King’s College, staffers from several Pa. State offices, including State Reps. Brenda Pugh, Eddie Day Pashinski, and Alec Ryncavage, Luzerne Co. Councilwoman Joanna Bryn Smith, and several other organizations and volunteers.

“We get thousands of volunteers during the course of a year, and they donated close to 8,000 hours last year,” Jennifer Warabak, CEO/Weinberg executive director, said. “We have a lot of volunteers that come back continuously, and we have some that are here for the first time, and it’s a good mix, and each volunteer shows each other what to do.”

According to Warabak, the food packaging is a USDA program caseload where all items are packed and accounted for, and each box is weighed.

Pashinski, who is closing out his career as a Pa. legislator at the end of the year, has been volunteering his time at the CEO/Weinberg Food Bank for several years and said he will continue once retired from office.

“This just makes you feel good,” Pashinski said on why he enjoys volunteering at CEO. “It makes you respect what we do have. We are the richest, most powerful nation in the whole world, and we still have Americans that need food, and that’s distressing. I’d like to compliment those that donate financially to purchase the products as well as the companies that provide them.”

Pashinski stressed people have to help each other out. “Thank God we can get this food out to people that can use it.”

The State Rep. said even though he’s retiring from public service, he would be back at CEO volunteering year after year.

Also volunteering for the afternoon shift at CEO was Carla McCabe, president & CEO at WVIA Public Media. McCabe said she understands the need for volunteerism and was happy to help at CEO.

“This is good for us because we (WVIA) rely so heavily on volunteers,” McCabe said. “It’s good for us to do the same and give back ourselves, especially for an organization (CEO) like this. We actually have built into our policy for employees (at WVIA) volunteer days, so we allow two days for volunteering, and we encourage it, and it’s their choice where they would like to volunteer.”

Debbie Taylor, Corporate and Community Relations at CEO, said as many as 40,000 cases of food are packed, shipped and delivered during the course of a year.

If you are your organization are interested in volunteering at CEO, sign up at https://www.ceopeoplehelpingpeople.org/volunteer.