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Greater Washington County Food Bank seeks cost-cutting measures

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CENTERVILLE – The Greater Washington County Food Bank has proposed opening a drive-through window at its Centerville headquarters to cut costs in delivering free groceries to the poor.

The idea was suggested at meetings last week with its volunteer food pantry coordinators as the food bank seeks suggestions on ways to reduce costs, said Peg Wilson, president of the food bank board.

“It was brought up as a suggestion,” Wilson said Tuesday.

She said she didn’t think the drive-through window would work in replacing pantries.

“I don’t want to close anything,” Wilson said.

Myra Motycki, who coordinates the Charleroi Food Pantry, also said the drive-through window in Centerville could create problems, especially for those who walk to pantries for food.

“I can’t see it working,” Motycki said.

She said some people who need food survive on as little as $700 a month.

“It’s terrible that so many people in Charleroi rely on this food,” she said.

This pantry is open twice a week and provides food to as many as 200 people a month.

She said at the recent meetings, food bank representatives discussed the possibility of combining some of the pantries.

Wilson said the rising cost of distributing food by truck to the pantries was among the reasons that prompted the meetings.

She said the discussions at the meetings also grew out of the unexpected closing of a food pantry in Canton Township last month after it came to light that it lost its tax-exempt status.

“That’s when it all started,” Wilson said.

The matter was complicated by a proposal by a pantry in Finleyville to purchase a building, when the food bank would prefer for that money to be used to purchase food, Wilson said.

She said she also is looking into the closing of another pantry in California Borough.

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