University Times

Pitt’s 23rd annual Partnership for Food drive, which ran through April, shattered all records this year.

The food drive benefits the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, a nonprofit organization in Duquesne that stores and distributes food and other grocery products to area soup kitchens, food pantries, senior centers, schools and homeless shelters.

“We had well over 600,000 units donated, more than double of any other year,” food drive coordinator Steve Zupcic told the University Senate community relations committee (CRC) last week. (Donations are calculated not by items, but in “units” loosely based on a donation’s nutritional value.)

Zupcic cited several reasons that the food drive was so successful, including students donating more of their unused dining dollars, which this year accounted for 75,000 units; stories in the University Times that raised awareness of the region’s need for food and other household items, and the online virtual food drive option first offered this year.

“About five times more units were donated through the online virtual food drive than in the traditional food drop-off sites,” Zupcic reported. “People really took advantage of the convenience as well as purchasing food at about half the retail price due to bulk purchasing from the food bank’s suppliers. Plus, these are the items that the food bank needs the most, so it is a win-win situation.”

Zupcic also noted the role of the Chancellor’s office in matching the number of items donated by the Pitt community.

CRC is supporting a number of ongoing food bank initiatives, including “Fourth Thursdays,” a volunteer effort of Pitt employees and students to distribute food at the Food Bank warehouse on the fourth Thursday evening of each month. Lenzner, Pitt’s shuttle bus vendor, is donating transportation service from campus and back for the volunteer effort.

(For more information on volunteering, contact Zupcic at 412/624-7709 or stz@pitt.edu. Online sign up also is available at www.commrel.pitt.edu/CRO-volunteerpoolform.html.)

Alexa Jennings, acting president of the Student Government Board and CRC student liaison, told the committee that student leaders plan to organize a food drive in the fall and to continue to push the donation of unused dining dollars.
John Wilds, assistant vice chancellor for community relations, told CRC members that Pitt is lobbying to open a food pantry in Oakland to better serve that community.

“We’re looking at the old Zone 4 police station, which is now being used by the Parks Conservancy for storage. We’ve been talking to them. It would be a perfect space and it makes sense that a community group would want to support the community by offering the space” pro bono, Wilds said.

If the negotiations are successful, a new food pantry could open as early as the fall, he added.

(The city closed Police Station No. 4 on McKee Place in 2003.)

In other committee developments:

• CRC expects to define its role in promoting “2020 Vision,” an initiative introduced by Pittsburgh City Council member Bill Peduto to develop a comprehensive 10-year master plan for Oakland. (See Nov. 6, 2008, University Times.)

As background, the committee plans to review the Oakland Task Force’s planning document, “The Future of Oakland: A Community Investment Strategy,” which was developed in 2003 and since has been modified, according to Renny Clark, Pitt vice chancellor for community initiatives, who chairs OTF.

• Wilds reported that the Pitt Volunteer Pool has undergone a name change to better reflect its volunteer efforts and now is known as Faculty and Staff in Service to Community. The unit’s staffing, contact numbers and daily operation remain the same.

• Clark urged Pitt commuters who were concerned about potential changes in the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s services to attend a June 8 open house in the Connolly Ballroom, Alumni Hall. (See related story this issue.)

• A ceremony to dedicate the Oakland portal bridge will be held June 2 at 11 a.m. Local and regional dignitaries are expected to attend, Clark said.

• Denise Chisholm and Wes Rohrer were elected co-chairs of the community relations committee for the next academic year.

—Peter Hart