Heroes Fighting Hunger

In December, when Governor Wolf announced a second round of restrictions on indoor dining for restaurants, Dan Smith, the President and CEO at Equipment & Controls Inc. in Lawrence, PA, had an idea.
“It started with a conversation at the kitchen table,” Smith explained. “I saw two big problems. You have local restaurant owners who have been in the community for years and have battled through COVID since March. They probably just ordered all this inventory for the holidays and now they’re forced to shut down. And then you also have people in the community who can’t afford to eat. And I just thought, if we could get the right people involved and put the funding in the right place, maybe we could put a dent in both of these problems.”
Smith called City Mission’s Chief Financial Officer, Denny Kennedy. They had worked together years ago when Kennedy was the CFO at Smith’s company. “We had kept in touch over the years, and he told me when he started working at the Mission.”
When Smith and Kennedy first brought the idea to City Mission’s President/CEO Dean Gartland, his first thought was, “what a tremendous idea. This can be a win-win for everyone involved. I was excited to see how this idea can be implemented. We started working right away to make this idea into a reality.”
“Really, all I had was an idea,” said Smith. “All the credit goes to the folks who went out and made it happen. I couldn’t believe how fast it all came together and how passionate everyone at the Mission was to get this going.”
Smith made an initial donation to City Mission, and the Heroes Fighting Hunger program was born. City Mission used the funds to purchase meals from local restaurants for the 160 homeless residents living on their campus. So far, the Mission has supported eleven local restaurants, purchasing approximately 400 meals from each establishment, and those meals have provided lunches and dinners for City Mission residents throughout the month of January.
“This is just such a great idea. It’s a massive win-win for restaurants struggling with lowered revenue due to COVID-19, and for our residents here at the Mission as well,” said City Mission’s Chief Development Officer, Dr. Sally Mounts, who joined the program early on and quickly jumped into action.
Mounts reached out to generous donors in the community, and using Smith’s initial donation as a matching gift, was able to raise even more money for the cause. Donors to the new program include: Brian and Karen Shanahan, Mike and Kathy Makripodis, Jon Halpern of Pineapple Payments, and others.
“We’re all struggling to get to the other side of this terrible pandemic,” added Mounts. “Anything that unites us in this effort is a bonus for the whole community. And since so much of our ministry centers around food and shelter, it helped us provide a real bright spot for our residents.”
City Mission typically relies on food donations to keep costs low and financial donations to provide meals for the 160 residents who depend on them for food and shelter every day. But the generous donations received as part of this project, enabled the Mission to spend more per meal this month, which helped not only to support local restaurants but also to offer their residents more upscale meals and a greater variety of options.
City Mission’s Food ServicesManager, Judy Sandy, came on board to organize the project, contact the restaurants,and put together a meal schedule. “What an awesome idea this is,” she said. “It’s exciting. It’s good for the restaurants and for our residents.”
Sandy reached out initially to eleven different restaurants who have worked with the Mission in the past, and every single one of them said yes. “They were all excited and grateful. Some of them even asked for the name of the donor so they could thank him personally.”
“And it’s special for our residents too,” she added. “The variety of the meals is incredible. It’s like they’re getting to eat out every day. These are places they can’t typically go, and these restaurants are actually coming to us. And the residents are so grateful. When they come in and see the food it’s like they’re thinking, ‘is this really for me? Do people really care this much about me?’ It makes me cry to even think about it.”
Mission BBQ in Robinson has been providing lunch on Thursdays for the residents this month. They served up kielbasa, pulled pork, pulled chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, baked beans, cornbread, dinner rolls, and their signature barbecue sauce – a worthy spread for someone who maybe just a few days earlier had no idea where their next meal was coming from.
“One of the main challenges for this project,” said Smith, “was really the speed at which it all had to happen. The need is immediate. Restaurants are hurting today. People are hungry right now. This all had to happen in days and weeks, not months, and I’ve been really impressed with the passion and energy of everybody at the Mission.”
“The hope is,” he added, “When all this is over and the restaurants are back up on their feet, hopefully they remember the Mission and pay it forward.”
City Mission hopes to reach out to more local restaurants later this month and continue to offer support as long as the donations last. Please contact Dr. Sally Mounts at 724-705-7122 or smounts@citymission.org if you’d like to donate to this program and support local businesses and the residents of City Mission.