Helping needy families fly high

But that full freezer didn't cost Shrack a fortune. She and her husband take advantage of food sold by Angel Food Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit that's been rapidly expanding.

Anyone -- no matter their income level or circumstance -- can buy a unit of food from Angel Food every month for $25.

The food -- everything from beef to chicken to pasta to French fries -- can fill a medium-sized box and is valued at $50 to $75.

"I think it's a wonderful program," said Shrack, 65, of Latrobe. "There's no exclusions. You don't have to be poor, you don't have to be rich; it's for anyone."

The Georgia-based program, which started out by feeding 34 families in 1994, fed 500,000 families in 32 states in November alone.

In the first 11 months of 2006, the program outpaced its food distribution in the first 11 years of the ministry.

The food is ordered and distributed every month. After patrons purchase at least one $25 unit of food, they can buy specialty units of items like steak or chicken.

Angel Food buys the food in bulk and, unlike a grocery store that would mark up the price, passes savings on to the community.

Angel Food Ministries opened its first distribution center in Pennsylvania three years ago. Today, about 150 locations host the ministry.

Della Villers, who coordinates the program in Pennsylvania, helped open that first location in Crawford County.

"It seems to be growing," Villers said. "Anywhere from five to 10 new sites are coming on a month."

Villers said 28 trucks, each filled with 40,000 pounds of food, are now delivering to Pennsylvania sites. By January, she expects more than 30 trucks to make the run from Georgia to Pennsylvania.

She said the program shatters barriers -- Catholic churches working with Methodist churches working with nondenominational ministries.

The program filtered down into Southwestern Pennsylvania in the last year or two.

"They are looking to put warehouses up here in Pennsylvania because there is a great need," Villers said.

Ronald David Kosor, pastor of Alpha Lions Den Ministries in Derry, said he began looking at Angel Food several months ago after hearing about it through another pastor.

"We're a church, but we're an outreach church," he said. "We're into helping the community. We're into touching the community. We want to exercise our faith with what we do, not what we say."

In three months, the church went from placing 30 orders it picked up at another church in McKeesport to serving as a distribution center for other churches and doling out 850 orders.

Kosor said Angel Food is meant for anybody, not just those who qualify for government assistance.

"I've seen grown men just come into our church and break down crying and saying, 'I haven't eaten a T-bone steak in 10 years,' and here they're buying a box for $18," Kosor said.

New Hope Christian Community in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood distributed its first Angel Food orders on Saturday.

Jo Ann Snow, 35, of Oakland, decided to coordinate the program for her church after she ordered food from another church in New Brighton, Beaver County.

"Our idea was always to get our hand into the community to help anyone who was in need," Snow said of New Hope. "If we can touch one person, then I felt we as a church, as a congregation, as a community, we've truly done what we're supposed to do."

Jill Pistella, 39, of Pittsburgh's Greenfield neighborhood, was the first person to sign up for Angel Food at New Hope.

She and her husband heard about it when they signed up for emergency mortgage assistance.

"It's extremely helpful because of the prices for the amount of food that you get," she said. "It's kind of nice to get it all at one time in bulk so you don't have to do so many shopping trips. It's more cost-effective for us."

Solid Rock Ministry in Uniontown began taking Angel Food orders last spring.

The church already has a food pantry and a clothing ministry, so Angel Food fit right in.

"What we try to do is try to help people, and the Angel Food is a way to help those who seem to fall between the cracks," said Buzz Hall, Solid Rock's pastor.

Hall said people from all over Fayette County and as far away as Morgantown, W.Va., have been ordering food through his church.

"It's really a wide range that we are reaching out to, and what's been spreading it for us is word of mouth," Hall said.

Tim Rugg, 39, of Markleysburg, Fayette County, picks up orders at Solid Rock and delivers them to his neighbors in the mountains.

Rugg said the program has saved him, his wife, and their son on food bills.

"It helps the people that's in-between," Rugg said. "It's the people that's out there just making enough to survive. It just helps them a little more on their food bill; that way, they have a little extra money for their families."

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