Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank announces coalition to deal with childhood hunger

Childhood hunger is becoming a bigger problem in Southwestern Pennsylvania than perhaps anyone could have anticipated.

Roughly 96,000 children in the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s 11-county service area don’t have access to enough food, or food of an adequate quality to meet basic needs, according to Feeding America.

Now the food bank is announcing a new initiative that directly deals with this problem.

On Jan. 1 the Sports and Media Coalition will officially launch. It’s a collaboration between local media and the region’s professional, collegiate, high school (WPIAL) and other sports organizations.

The initial goal of the coalition is to ensure all children in the region have enough healthy food to eat.

The quarterly priorities in the first year include raising awareness about existing resources to decrease children’s food insecurity, working to promote healthy eating and physical activities for kids, and urging elected officials to develop strong child nutrition policies.

The coalition consists of senior level leadership from more than 20 local media and sports entities.

They include: Ryan Huzjak, vice president of sales and marketing for the Steelers; Jacque Skowvron, executive director of Pirates Charities; Kevin Acklin, COO and general counsel for the Penguins; Vic Gregovits, Pittsburgh Riverhounds president; Christian Spears, deputy athletic director and COO at the University of Pittsburgh; Megan Jahrling, associate athletic director and external affairs at Duquesne University; Chris King, vice president and athletic director at Robert Morris University; Amy Scheuneman, executive director of the WPIAL; and Jennifer Bertetto, president and CEO of Trib Total Media.

“The opportunity to bring together our region’s sports and media leaders has been something I’ve desired for a long time,” said Brian Gulish, vice president of marketing and communications for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. “We have great individual relationships with everyone on the coalition and I’ve always thought there was a way to get them together on the same team given the right mission.”

The coalition was introduced at a meeting on Sept. 21.

“The current awareness for the Food Bank’s mission, the support we have had the past 18 months during the pandemic from everyone on this coalition and the fact that one in five children in Southwestern Pennsylvania are food insecure was why we decided now was the time to make this happen.”