PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The City of Pittston\u2019s monthly food distribution pantry drew its largest turnout so far since launching in December as residents lined up Thursday at the Pittston Memorial Library for free groceries.<\/p>\n
The Pittston City Food Distribution Pantry<\/a>, held in the library\u2019s Cosgrove Room, was run by the city\u2019s Office of Community Development in partnership with CEO Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank and the Downtown Pittston Partnership.<\/p>\n Mary Kroptavich, chief of staff and operations for the City of Pittston, said the April distribution was the program\u2019s fifth, and demand has climbed sharply since the first event.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only has the program grown in the number of people coming out to receive food, but it has also grown in the number of people volunteering. We\u2019ve had a great partnership with Pittston Area School and also some community members reaching out to participate,” said Kroptavich.<\/p>\n Kroptavich said nearly 50 people participated at the first distribution, and that number has now climbed to about 140 families signed up in advance for the April distribution, which she called the largest so far and a sign of continued need as food costs rise.<\/p>\n Participants were able to choose from free pantry staples, fresh produce and meats, along with items such as milk, rice, pasta, peanut butter and jelly.<\/p>\n Kroptavich said the city has worked with Pittston Area School and other local groups to supply volunteers for the monthly distributions, with an emphasis on bringing in different community organizations from month to month.<\/p>\n Volunteers at the April distribution included students involved with the Greater Pittston Foundation for Global Education<\/a>, a relatively new nonprofit linked to Pittston Area High School that supports educational travel opportunities. Mauri Bohan, a teacher at Pittston Area High School, said the organization has more than 50 students involved.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a community-based nonprofit organization, and the community has been really supportive of us. So my thought was, let\u2019s give back to the community in some way. We\u2019re also an experiential learning organization. That\u2019s what we\u2019re all about, doing hands-on experiences and learning not just academic skills, but interpersonal skills,\u201d said Bohan.<\/p>\n The next Pittston City Food Distribution Pantry is scheduled for May 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Pittston Memorial Library. More information, including registration or volunteering details, is posted on the City of Pittston’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The City of Pittston\u2019s monthly food distribution pantry drew its largest turnout so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-174596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}