Turnout fluctuates at Pittsburgh food bank giveaways

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank was prepared to serve 1,500 vehicles Wednesday at an emergency food distribution at Pittsburgh International Airport, but only about half that number showed up for free boxes of frozen meats and dry goods.

Food bank spokeswoman Melissa Murray said volunteers loaded two 25-pound boxes of food into 812 vehicles. She said it’s been hard to gauge turnout for the 10 emergency food giveaways it has so far hosted during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We don’t know for sure why that happened,” she said. “We were expecting a larger turnout, but we didn’t see that number for some reason. It’s just so hard to gauge the numbers. You prepare for 1,500 at one, and half that number shows up. You prepare for 1,500 at another, and you have to turn people away.”

She said federal stimulus checks that began arriving this week might have steered people to grocery stores rather than Wednesday’s food giveaway.

Food left over is returned to the organization’s warehouse for distribution at other events.

The food bank is preparing to serve 2,000 vehicles Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. during a distribution at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Murray said the food bank had to turn away people the last time it hosted a giveaway at the arena. It had enough food for 1,300 vehicles during that event on April 10.

It has so far distributed more than 580,600 pounds of food to 10,600 vehicles during the coronavirus pandemic.