Northside Food Pantry

The Northside Food Pantry is a progressive, nonsectarian nonprofit founded in 1982 over a Thanksgiving meal shared by three pastors of local churches. All operating individual food pantries at the time, the pastors realized their efforts would have a greater impact if they worked together, the Rev. Patrick Fenton of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Manchester told the Pittsburgh Press, in a profile of the organization published in 1985.

Its doors opened in 1983 as the Northside Common Ministries, with nine churches joining the initial effort. Eventually it would grow to include the support of about 30 Northside churches and expand to offer other services for those in need, including a 25-bed men’s emergency shelter.

The pantry’s first home was the second floor of Calvary Methodist Church on Allegheny Avenue. Three years later, in 1985, it moved to the basement of Emmanuel Episcopal Church on North Avenue. It moved into its current home, a converted church at 1601 Brighton Road, in 1992.