Chatham helps to fight hunger with bread, fish
Needy families in the Pittsburgh community will soon get bread and fish, thanks to two charitable efforts by Chatham University.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the region and the university, and so the Chatham staff is seeking to turn negatives to positives with loaves of bread and fish.
Chatham’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food and Transformation has imported a Midwestern initiative called Neighbor Loaves. The program benefits grain farmers and bakeries, providing freshly baked bread to food pantries, where need has increased during the coronavirus crisis.
The Aquaculture Center — along with the rest of campus — had to close at Chatham’s Eden Hall campus in Richland because of the pandemic. But the fish won’t be going to waste. Instead, they will be given to feed needy families and some will be used to restock a stream.
Neighbor Loaves
So far, five Pittsburgh bakeries have signed on to offer “neighbor loaves” — bread that a bakery customer can pay to send to a nearby food pantry.
Cassandra Malis, CRAFT program manager, ran into a group called the Artisan Grains Collaborative in her work researching and supporting grain farming. Artisan Grains Collaborative started the Neighbor Loaves program, and Ms. Malis decided to bring it to Pittsburgh.
The five bakery partners so far are Mediterra Bakehouse in Robinson, Driftwood Oven in Lawrenceville, Novel Breads Co. in Butler, Going With the Grain Bakery in Harrisville and Persephone in Highland Park. More bakers are encouraged to sign up.
To help with the program, customers need to order a “neighbor loaf” online from a participating bakery. The customer then pays for the loaf,
and the bread is delivered to a food pantry or people in need.
Bakeries need to agree to source at least 50 percent of their neighbor loaf flours from local grain farms.
In most cases, Ms. Malis said, the bakeries are using grains from one of the region’s two largest grain farms — Weatherbury Farm in Avella or Frankferd Farms in Saxonburg.
She finds that the program is popular because “people are really trying to support the food businesses they love” during the pandemic. It’s not difficult for the consumer to simply click and fund an extra loaf when they’re already buying for themselves, she added.
Bakers are free to decide which type of loaves they’ll make as their neighbor loaves. Heather Sprague of Novel Breads Co. said she’s currently offering honey wheat loaves. All of her breads are inspired by books she has read. The honey wheat loaf is inspired by Alyssa Shelasky’s food memoir, “Apron Anxiety.”
“It’s been great,” Ms. Sprague said. “My customers are all over it.” People are wanting to contribute to those in need during the pandemic, she added.
She noted that ingredients for her “neighbor loaves,” in addition to Frankferd Farms flour, include local honey from Carla’s Apiary in Portersville and olive oil sold at the
Enchanted Olive in Harmony.
When a bakery signs on, Ms. Malis helps the baker find a nearby food pantry or other organization to work with.
Mediterra’s neighbor loaves go to the nonprofit partners of 412 Food Rescue, which “rescues” food that would otherwise go to waste and redistributes it to people in need.
Driftwood Oven’s breads go to Lawrenceville United, which currently is delivering food to more than 40 needy Lawrenceville families, Ms. Malis said. (Driftwood’s Bread Share program is closed for May but will be available again in June.)
Novel Breads Co. takes its loaves to Evans City Community Food Cupboard, and Going With the Grain’s breads benefit Community Services of Venango County, the Grove City Community Food Pantry and Slippery Rock’s Feed My Sheep Food Cupboard.
Persephone is doing Neighbor Loaves a little differently. It is baking free bread and delivering it to individual residents who ask for it, and it is not keeping any profits. Anyone who wants to donate is asked to send a donation to Community Kitchen Pittsburgh in Hazelwood (ckpgh.org/donate-today) instead.
During the first two weeks of the program, only two bakeries had listed neighbor loaves on their websites, but the program had already sold about 30 to 40 neighbor loaves, Ms. Malis said.
“I love this program because it helps three different groups of people — bakeries, farmers and people who need food,” she said.
Fish donations
When Chatham had to close its Aquaculture Center at the Eden Hall Campus, the fish couldn’t be delivered to the university’s cafeteria because that had shut down, too.
“COVID has thrown all of our normal end users out the window,” said Roy Weitzell, aquatic laboratory director, noting the university also has typically sold some of the fish to restaurants.
But he worked with several contacts to make sure the fish could still be put to good use.
412 Food Rescue’s Good Food Project is planning to turn 100 of Chatham’s rainbow trout into trout-and-potato fritters, assuming the chefs get the rest of the ingredients they need for that dish. GFP operates out of a commercial kitchen at the Millvale Food and Energy Hub. Various businesses and organizations donate surplus food items to 412 Food Rescue, and GFP turns the ingredients into about 450 meals each week for nonprofit organizations that serve people in need.
“We are beyond thrilled to be receiving such a fresh donation of protein and to be able to provide something different and exciting for our nonprofit partners,” said program director Marissa Fogel said.
The remaining trout from Chatham tanks were used to stock a stream in Butler County, Mr. Weitzell said.
About 20 to 25 live tilapia went to Oasis Farm & Fishery in Homewood, where they were added to the aquaponics system to help fertilize the fresh vegetables grown there. The fresh produce then will be delivered to Homewood Children’s Village and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to serve families in the community.
“This is a beautiful example of a university-community partnership,” said Cynthia Wallace, The Oasis Project ‘s executive director.