Wilkinsburg Community Ministry (WCM) is a 501(c)(3) community nonprofit. Since 1968, WCM has provided such essential basic necessities as food, clothing and energy assistance to Wilkinsburg residents.
We serve approximately 5,000 residents per year, including senior citizens, citizens with disabilities, at-risk youth and families who are economically challenged, underemployed or facing emergency situations.
We share healthy food with our neighbors. We encourage cooking with fresh ingredients. Our pantry is open from 9 AM to 1 PM Monday to Friday except federal religious holidays. Our food sources include:
• The Food Bank
• Retailer donations;
• Individual donations;
• Our garden;
COVID-19 taught us that our food supply system can be disrupted. As the effects of the pandemic began to be felt we saw shortages and lack of diversity on our food options. The pandemic has helped us understand how fragile our access to food is, food security is critical to our community’s well-being.
Our garden aims to provide our pantry with food security and share with our neighbors’ ways to grow food year-round. We built a greenhouse using wooden pallets and low-cost materials, like binder clips. The greenhouse houses an aquaponic food production system. It has 55-gallon fish tank. We feed the fish insects, the fish then poop and feed the plants. We are growing microgreens and greens using this micro-ecosystem.
Our garden is experimental, we have tried growing vegetables and produce in straw bales and used tires as planters. We discovered the tires heat up with the sun and keep the soil at warmer temperatures allowing us to grow into late fall. Our garden shows our neighbors that we can grow our own food quickly with very little investment.
For our neighbors’ access to food is also determined by their schedule, access to transportation and government regulations. Early in March a line formed around the block, our neighbors really needed food. The COVID-19 shutdown left them with few dollars and for some no employment. Other pantries also closed due to the risk to their elderly volunteers. We choose to stay open and serve our neighbors.
To ensure everyone in our neighborhood could have access to food we changed how our pantry operates. Our pantry’s food inventory emphasizes ingredients and cooking fresh. How it works is simple: take what you can use; you have 5 minutes to choose what you need; please share, don’t waste food; show respect for the time we invest and your neighbors time. We believe this approach serves our neighbors well as many of them have chronic illnesses that can be addressed through diet.
Our pantry also contributes to the health of our planet by diverting food that could otherwise end up in a landfill and putting it in the hands of people who can use it. From the beginning of the pandemic to now our pantry shared 170,000 lbs. of food with our neighbors. Keeping the carbon dioxide equivalent of 8,095 pounds of methane from being released into the environment. http://wcm15221.org/