Here’s How a Plastic Bag Ban Can Work with Grocery Stores like Giant Eagle

tote bags food bank

Pittsburgh is one step closer to a ban on single use plastic bags. The bill will be up for a final vote at the Tuesday, April 12 meeting, and if passed will go into effect on April 12, 2023. Essentially, you will have to pay $.10 per paper bag or bring your own bag/box/etc. One […]

Be Part of Our Face Mask Reviews and Help Pgh Food Bank

We are going to need multiple masks to get through 2020. Two person aka one to wear, one to wash at a bare minimum. Anything might work in the short-term, but over the long haul – people need to make careful choices. How do you choose the right face mask for you? What material? Elastic […]

PA Winery Tours Benefits #MostWantedArtists

PA Winery Tour

As I’ve shared, I’m now an Artist in Residence with Most Wanted Fine Art (MWFA) gallery in Garfield. It is a terrific community engagement project that supports public art throughout the region. I was very happy to connect the gallery with an opportunity to secure sustainable funding through a partnership that focuses on fun things […]

Five Places To Donate Feminine Hygiene Supplies in Pittsburgh

A recent article on The Huffington Post titled “For Homeless Women, Getting Their Period Is One Of The Most Difficult Challenges” has been a topic of much discussion on Facebook. I’ve written about this in the past, but here are the talking points Tampons, pads and related supplies cannot be purchased with SNAP (food stamps) […]

Why to Support the KD Turkey Fund

KD Turkey Fund

Many years ago, I ran a modest food pantry in a rural Kentucky county. It was a humbling experience during which I fumbled and stumbled many times as I tried to solicit donations and distribute them with some semblance of dignity. When I returned to Pittsburgh, I learned about Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank – […]

UPDATED LIHEAP, Toys for Tots and Other Critical Cold Weather Info for Neighbors

Pittsburgh Winter

I often write about human service programs, poverty, and related topics so people find their way to my site looking for information on programs to help their families and households, especially during the cold winter months. I see that happening already this year so I’m going to go ahead and share the information I can […]

That Time Someone Gave me 5,000 Tote Bags

Pittsburgh Donation

Mid-summer 2012, I was coordinating a project to redirect gently used tote bags to the Food Bank. We also received quite a bit of excess promotional merchandise – bags, cups, etc. This operation had no formal space other than my vehicle and occasionally my living room. We quite literally sorted and counted on the street, […]

How To Fold A Tote Bag (Project)

Tell us about a time things came this close to working out… but didn’t. What happened next? Would you like the chance to try again, or are you happy with how things eventually worked out? This is a prompt guaranteed to launch a thousand “what might have been” tales of woe and heartache. Once upon a time, […]

Unemployment Benefits Cut in Pennsylvania; Where LGBTQ Unemployed Can Turn

gay unemployment

73,000 Pennsylvanians stopped receiving emergency unemployment compensation yesterday due to the expiration of a federal extension launched under the Bush Administration. 73,000 of our neighbors without a job and with no income in a still terrible economy where Fight Club determines which person gets the PT barista job. I don’t really have a lot that’s […]

Being Struck By Lightning Helped Lighten Their Loads

tote bags food bank

The Prompt: Tell us about a time you’d been trying to solve a knotty problem — maybe it was an interpersonal problem, a life problem, a big ol’ problem — and you had a moment of clarity when the solution appeared to you, as though you were struck by lightening. OK, so first I have […]