When people come together, great things can happen. We see this often across Butler County, including two events that addressed food insecurity the past two weekends.

Volunteers on Saturday came together with a “mountain of food” for the Southwest Butler County Food Cupboard, which is located at Zion Lutheran Church on Perry Highway.

More than a dozen religious and secular groups brought, sorted and shelved truckloads of nonperishable food for the pantry, according to an article by Eagle senior reporter Paula Grubbs.

Jocelyn Christensen, communications director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Pittsburgh North stake, explained the church partnered with 13 groups a month ago in the effort.

In that short time, people really showed up for the pantry, which serves nearly 120 clients.

“We should be helping feed the community,” Leena Aboosally said Saturday. “If we can eat, everyone should be able to eat.”

Aboosally could be seen Saturday helping to carry and sort the soup, crackers and desserts that the Muslim Association of Greater Pittsburgh brought for the food cupboard.

The prior weekend, according to a brief item in the Nov. 22 Eagle, shoppers visiting downtown Butler for Small Business Saturday supported the Butler County Food Bank by bringing nonperishable foods along to donate.

As they emptied their bags of food donations, they filled them with goods from downtown businesses, which served as drop-off locations for the food drive.

The Butler County Food Bank is run by Community Partnership and supports 28 Butler County food pantries and 10 local food kitchens.

It’s certainly noteworthy how people came together for these causes, but also worth noting is that these food drives came after the Thanksgiving holiday. The need here in Butler County does not only appear before holidays, but we are confident that people here will come together to fill the need.

— TL