PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A new program in Pittston is putting free, nutritious meals directly into neighborhoods, with a focus on helping families when school meals aren\u2019t available.<\/p>\n
The city says the need is especially important as the cost of groceries continues to rise. Today, the first \u201cNourish in the Neighborhood\u201d pop-up served free meals to Pittston residents.<\/p>\n
For families already struggling to make ends meet, putting a healthy meal on the table can be a challenge.<\/p>\n
And in Pittston, the city says the need is significant.<\/p>\n
According to Census Bureau data, about 28 percent of children under 18 in the city live below the federal poverty line, roughly one in four kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple years ago we did a needs assessment survey throughout the neighborhoods and a lot of feedback we received was just ‘our groceries are so high, our bills are so high, what can we do?’ We really wanted to be strategic about the programs that we roll out, and we found that this would fulfill a real need in our community,” said Shannon Bonacci, director of community development for the City of Pittston. <\/p>\n
That feedback helped lead to a new program called Nourish in the Neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The first pop-up Friday provided 100 free grab-and-go meals, paid for through Community Development Block Grant funding.<\/p>\n
The meals include shredded chicken or a plantain entr\u00e9e, yellow rice, beans and fresh fruit, with an emphasis on foods that can be expensive for families to buy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe overlook the cost of produce. We\u2019ll go to the grocery store, and you can get a bag of Doritos and chips, but if you\u2019re trying to feed your kids at home so they can focus during school, it\u2019s sometimes hard to get access to fresh fruit, beans, protein. So, the meal today is focused on that,” said Bonacci.<\/p>\n
The city partnered with The Coqui Kitchen, a Puerto Rican-American restaurant that opened in Pittston last November.<\/p>\n
Chef and owner James Bodnar says he\u2019s helping a community that made his restaurant feel at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe times are tough for everybody right now. We\u2019re a growing business. We\u2019re getting our footing ourselves, but it\u2019s nice to be able to help out. It\u2019s not about how much money you have. If you want a hot meal, we\u2019re happy to provide it,” said Bodnar.<\/p>\n
Pittston officials say they hope Nourish in the Neighborhood can continue filling a need, with another pop-up planned for the fall, and future events timed around when school is out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A new program in Pittston is putting free, nutritious meals directly into neighborhoods,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-265809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265809","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=265809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}