A Permanent Center for Restaurant Workers

On March 16th, 2020, a group of recently out-of-work Pittsburgh restaurant workers immediately saw the need to provide food assistance to fellow members of our industry who needed immediate support. We recognized that many of our community members were not able to travel to food banks, social service organizations, or grocery stores to obtain life-sustaining items.

Within a couple of days, we started safely gathering and distributing donations on the porch of our co-founder’s home in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Since then, we were able to secure temporary spaces at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination in Garfield and the X-Factory in Point Breeze, eventually finding a home for our Distribution Center, currently located on Liberty Ave in Bloomfield.

In the last two years, Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid has created programs to serve one of the hardest hit industries. At the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we were delivering grocery items to 200 households each week, with a current average of 80-90 households. Much of our goods come from in-kind donations from community members, partnerships with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, 412 Food Rescue, Biggies Bullies Pet Food Pantry, the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank, and contributions from local farmers/food suppliers. Through our Care Package Program, we have provided aid to 1500+ restaurant families spanning in over 90 zip codes. Utilizing our network of +261 neighbors, our volunteers have travelled over 42,207 miles resulting in ~2,319.80 hours of time. Our volunteers have safely delivered care packages filled with healthy produce, diapers, cleaning products, menstrual products, and pet food to the doorsteps of +4,788 homes.

Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid has been and continues to be committed to providing high quality donations to our restaurant families. Even with the support of our partners, we find ourselves in need of financial support to keep our current location.

Since December 2021, we’ve seen an increase in requests that we have not seen since vaccines became available. Faced with ongoing need and inadequate relief, local restaurant workers are still struggling to make ends meet. Our worker-run center hopes to alleviate some of those worries by continuing to offer basic necessities to our industry in crisis.

Please consider supporting Pittsburgh’s restaurant worker community by donating!