Hot Meals and
Hope
Greensburg nonprofit Feeding the Spirit approaches 100,000th hot meal served to Westmoreland County residents facing hunger, poverty and homelessness.
BY NICOLE TAFE
It all started with a morning run. One day in 2011, Greensburg resident Deb Thackrah was out for a run on her usual route when she passed several people who appeared to be homeless. Deeply moved, she felt called to act.“ Right then and there I decided that, as a community, we needed to do better,” she says. Later that year, Thackrah founded local nonprofit Feeding the Spirit. Since then, Feeding the Spirit has grown into a vital support system for Westmoreland County residents facing hunger, poverty and homelessness. A weekly Thursday meal distribution has become a cornerstone of the outreach, starting with about 165 meals per week and now regularly serving more than 200.
But the organization’ s work extends well beyond meals. Feeding the Spirit provides emergency hotel stays, rent assistance, diapers( in partnership with the Diaper Bank of Western PA), and other essential items like laundry soap and personal care products.“ With the significant rise in rent costs, it is difficult for
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