SAL donates to food pantry for Thanksgiving

At least 90 Summit Hill families in need will have a bountiful Thanksgiving table this year.

The Sons of American Legion Post 316 recently donated $2,000 to the borough’s food pantry to help local families celebrate Thanksgiving.

The money will be used to purchase frozen turkeys and sides, which will be distributed by the pantry.

The Sons have been donating money for frozen turkeys on Thanksgiving since the 1990s and according to Joe Zubek, SAL finance officer, this donation brings the total given to the pantry by the Sons to over $25,000.

The donation is the organization’s annual community project.

“We are happy to do this every year for the pantry,” he said. “The people who will benefit from this donation are our neighbors. Everyone deserves to have a Thanksgiving meal.”

Rose Marie Armon, director of the Summit Hill Food Pantry, said that any leftover money will help to offset turkey purchases for Christmas as well.

To raise the money for this donation, the group holds various fundraisers throughout the year.

When the Thanksgiving program began more than two decades ago, 55 families received food packages for Thanksgiving. But rising food costs and tough economic times have increased the number of families in need.

The Summit Hill Food Pantry is a division of Shepherd House, an entity that contracts with government agencies to receive state and federal funding to help the needy. Shepherd House provides some nonperishable food items, but the majority of food distributed in the borough is donated by Summit Hill residents.