U.S. Open at Oakmont: Excess food goes to feed region's hungry
Barbecue ribs and chicken, fresh pineapple and cantaloupe and ready-to-eat meatballs that didn't get gobbled up by spectators at the U.S. Open will soon make it onto the plates of hungry children and adults at soup kitchens in Western Pennsylvania.
The end of the 116th U.S. Open golf championship marked a 25,000-pound boon of surplus food for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which serves an 11-county region. Food bank officials estimate the tournament's leftovers will provide for as many as 20,000 meals.
“This is going to make a huge impact,” Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank spokeswoman Beth Snyder said. “It's mostly produce, which is really healthy — which is awesome.”
Shortly after 2 p.m. Monday, the nonprofit umbrella organization's delivery trucks loaded up 23 pallets of unused food at Oakmont Country Club and hauled it off to the food bank's distribution warehouse in Duquesne.
“A lot of people think about hunger during the winter months,” said Snyder, “but this is a critical time period for the people that we serve, especially kids needing extra meals because they're home for the summer.”
Three food distribution agencies are set to get most of the donations: Light of Life Rescue Mission in the North Side, Rainbow Kitchen in Homestead and Rosedale United Methodist Church in Verona. All have certified food handlers trained in serving hot meals, Snyder said.
“We serve food to men, women and children every single day of the year, and we're so grateful for the U.S. Open's generosity,” said Kate Wadsworth, spokeswoman for Light of Life Rescue Mission, which provided 192,000 meals in 2015 and shares its food supplies with neighboring providers. “Especially in the summertime, it's just so nourishing to have that fresh produce available.”
On a given day, about 337,000 people, or one in seven, do not have enough to eat in the 11-county region served by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Feeding America estimates.
The Western Pennsylvania food distributor and its network of more than 400 food pantries provided nearly 29 million meals in 2015 — but they anticipate the true need to be closer to 60 million and are working toward that target, Snyder said.
Last year, the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay donated about 70,000 pounds of surplus food — including tri-tip steak, honey-baked ham, chickens, eggs and milk — to the Emergency Food Network in Pierce County, Wash., the News Tribune of Tacoma reported.
Natasha Lindstrom is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8514 or nlindstrom@tribweb.com.
