Squirrel Hill Food Pantry Celebrates 25 Years

The Jewish Family & Community Services (JFCS) of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill Food Pantry is celebrating 25 years of service at a time when local needs have risen sharply due to the lingering effects of inflation, stagnant wages, and recent cuts to federal food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The pantry, initiated in 1998 with funding from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF), has grown from a small kosher distribution site into a critical resource for people across Pittsburgh.

It traces its origin to the JHF’s Healthy Jewish Community Project, which revealed that nearly 10 percent of Jewish families in the region were living in poverty in the mid-1990s. This also coincided with an influx of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

JHF provided a three-year grant to establish what began as the Kosher SuperPantry in 1998. Over time its name and location changed, but its mission endured: to ensure no one goes hungry and to provide culturally appropriate food, including kosher options, to those who need it.

The demographics of people seeking help have shifted. The pantry now sees larger households with more children, along with older adults living on fixed incomes, immigrants, people who have lost work, and those facing homelessness. Volunteers and a small paid staff provide not only groceries but social assistance, connecting clients to additional community resources.

Two policy shifts are heightening demand. Local job disruptions tied to federal workforce changes have created income instability for some households. At the same time, changes to SNAP that took effect Sept. 1 will require many recipients to meet work, volunteer, or training requirements to remain eligible.

In a recent article in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Jordan Golin, PsyD, JFCS president and CEO, said the anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate volunteers and staff while drawing attention to mounting challenges.

"Recently, we've experienced some of the highest levels of need in the pantry's 25-year history. When the federal government shut down in October, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were temporarily suspended. As a result, we helped more families in just the first two weeks of November than in any full month since 2020. We're grateful that we could be a source of stability for so many families in need during this difficult and uncertain time,” Jesse Sharrard, director of the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, told JHF.

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank told Axios “more than 28,000 people in the Pittsburgh region” are expected to lose SNAP benefits under the new federal work requirements and related cuts. A Congressional Budget Office letter and policy analysis put the reduction at roughly 3.2 million people nationwide.

For 25 years, the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry has been open five days a week, providing food to the community.

Since January, the pantry has seen significantly higher requests for assistance. Historically serving between 230 and 300 households a month, the pantry now serves about 430 to 450 households, translating to upwards of 1,000 individuals each month. Sharrard said this October it served 1,474 people from 544 families and so far in November the pantry has already served 1,676 people from 600 households.

As the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry marks 25 years, its leaders are emphasizing collaboration. They are calling on volunteers, donors and partner organizations to increase their aid as food costs and program eligibility pressures persist. The pantry’s experience reflects a broader regional need: city and county data show many households struggle to access healthy, adequate and culturally appropriate food.

With the holiday season on the horizon, the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry projects its most needed items will be breakfast cereals, tinned fish or other shelf-stable proteins, shelf-stable kosher meals, and kosher grape juice.