PITTSBURGH — Before sitting down to their own Thanksgiving dinners, Pittsburgh police and volunteers handed out thousands of meals to people in need.
“There’s a need out there and there’s a capacity for us to meet it,” Pittsburgh Police Community Resource Officer Brian Wissner said.
Wissner missed out on Thanksgiving morning with his own family to ensure that thousands of people in the city received a free Thanksgiving meal.
Box by box, those meals were loaded up into vehicles and delivered to thousand of people in the city.
“There have been past years where I have actually brought my family along with me to help with the distribution efforts,” Wissner said. “At the end of the day, I am fortunate I get to go home and spend the day with them.”
Wissner helps organize the event for Zone 2 and told Channel 11 that officers and volunteers were passing out nearly 1500 meals in this zone alone.
As for the entire city, the number of meals is around 5,000.
“A lot of these folks may not have family or limited means, and be able to provide a little comfort, hospitality and community to them on a day like this, it’s no small thing,” he said.
The event takes months to plan. Community advocate and volunteer, Dr. Staci Ford, is one of the people who make sure it runs smoothly.
“An awful lot of effort,” Ford said. “Phone calls all through the night because people call and email all through the night. Trying to get the officers and the zone together, and everyone get their counts right and all these meals get accounted for.”
But despite the work, organizers say it’s well worth it.
“It’s a joy to see that we are actually able to feed people and make sure that everyone has an opportunity to have a Thanksgiving meal. It’s very important to us.”
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