Mount Washington's Food Bank Has a Building of Its Own Now. Here's How to Help This Holiday Season.

For about 50 years, the Washington Heights Ecumenical Food Bank has handed out groceries on Mount Washington without a permanent home. It moved from place to place, often with too little storage, and most recently worked out of a former bus garage at St. Mary of the Mount Church on Grandview Avenue. On August 20, 2026, it held a grand opening in a renovated building at 6 Boggs Avenue.

The building lets the pantry hold food the old garage had to turn away, and it gives jobs to volunteers who used to wait for a call. Its long-term finances also still depend on a second phase that, as of July, the project's money did not yet stretch to cover. As Mount Washington heads into November and December, the most useful ways to help look different from a year ago.

From a church garage to a corner building on Boggs

The food bank was incorporated in 1989 but had been running informally well before that. Linda Reber, who oversees it, started volunteering in 1990. She told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the ministry goes back about 50 years and that it has kept going through several moves. "We have never missed [a distribution]," she said. "At all."

If you've walked past the Wednesday market at St. Mary of the Mount, you've been close to where the pantry worked until this summer. The new building on Boggs has its own neighborhood history. According to Mike Carlin, executive director of the Mount Washington Community Development Corp., it started as a market and butcher shop and later held an insurance agency before sitting empty for years.

How the MWCDC got the building is part of the story. It was the first property a community development corporation bought through Pittsburgh's Land Bank, a program set up to give community groups a way to take over vacant properties. "This was the first property out of the land bank," Carlin told the Post-Gazette. The city issued the occupancy permit on July 22, 2026, after the final inspection passed on July 16. Volunteers spent the next few weeks moving everything in before the August opening.

The upstairs floor that was supposed to pay the bills

The food bank has the first floor. The plan for the second floor is a market-rate apartment, with the rent going toward the building's operating costs so the space doesn't rely on outside support year after year. "We want to be independent, especially for something like this," Carlin told the Post-Gazette.

The renovation cost a lot more than planned. The early estimate was $450,000 to $500,000, and Carlin said the real figure was closer to $850,000. The project also lost several contractors before work started. In the same July 2026 article, he described where the money stood:

"We have enough money to complete this food bank part. The second part, that's a different story."

That second part is the apartment. "It was supposed to be the money maker," Carlin said. David Binkoski, president of the MWCDC, said the group is still committed to finishing it.

So the pantry downstairs is open and working, and the part of the building meant to cover its costs over time was, in Carlin's words as of July 2026, "a different story." That gap is part of why help from the neighborhood still matters after the grand opening.

What the new shelves changed about helping

At the bus garage, the system was simple. "You pull up, and Linda and her team gives you a box," Carlin told the Post-Gazette. "You don't like what's in the box? Too bad." Boggs Avenue works more like a small grocery store, with small carts and shelves along the walls. People choose their own food within guidelines based on household size. At the August opening, Binkoski told WPXI that neighbors "can come in and shop for what they need, with dignity." Carlin also expects that letting people choose will cut down on wasted food.

That change affects anyone thinking about donating or volunteering, in three ways.

1. Bigger donations can now be accepted. In the old space, the pantry couldn't take large donations or stock up on free food from regional partners. Reber said she often had to turn down offers of frozen or refrigerated food. The new building has much more storage, and the longer-term goal is a walk-in cooler and freezer behind it.
2. Paper goods and toiletries now have shelf space. Reber said the extra room lets the pantry carry more paper products and personal care items, which she said are always appreciated.
3. The shopping layout needs more volunteers. Reber has a core team of about 20 helpers and, in her words to the Post-Gazette, "several notebook pages" of people waiting for a chance to help. The plan for Boggs Avenue is a more structured schedule, and ideally a volunteer walks each shopper through the aisles. The new layout turns that waiting list into real shifts.

Demand has been going up too. Reber said the pantry serves more households now than it did a few years ago. She also expects the new location to be easier to reach for people in nearby Allentown, where another food bank closed.

The food bank's Get Involved page lists these volunteer roles:

• Unloading trucks, usually on Monday mornings
• Helping at the monthly distributions
• Clerical work
• Fundraising

You can drop off nonperishable food during monthly distribution hours. Mail monetary gifts to Washington Heights Ecumenical Food Bank, c/o 17 Soffel St., Pittsburgh, PA 15211. For volunteering and donation questions, use the form on the site or call 412-481-5713. Cash also goes toward the costs that run past opening day, like the cooler and freezer the pantry hopes to add.

Hilltop dates between now and the new year

The food bank's monthly Tuesday distributions are the main dates, and two other programs on its calendar give hilltop neighbors more chances to help. Hilltop Alliance runs Fresh Fridays on the Hilltop, a produce and grocery distribution in Allentown, with partners that include Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, 412 Food Rescue and Animal Friends. Volunteers can sign up through the Hilltop Alliance. Living Stones runs a free hot buffet on the first Sunday of the month across the river on the South Side.

The November distribution falls on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. The food bank says it moves some dates, including in December, around the holidays. If you plan to drop off a holiday food drive or a car full of paper towels, aim for one of those two Tuesdays at Boggs Avenue.

Check two details before you go

The food bank's website is still catching up with the move. Its contact and donate pages still show 403 Grandview Avenue, the old St. Mary of the Mount location, but the events calendar gives 6 Boggs Ave. as the new address. Bring donations to Boggs Avenue.

Different pages on the site also list different distribution hours. Since drop-offs happen during those hours, call 412-481-5713 or use the contact form to confirm the time before you load the car.

When Reber was asked about her ultimate goal, she told the Post-Gazette, "Just not to need a food bank." Until then, the pantry at 6 Boggs Avenue runs on volunteer shifts and donations from the neighborhood.

Michele Leone has worked across Mount Washington for more than two decades, and the groups that run its food bank, cookoffs and gardens are part of what makes the hilltop a community. If your office, building or block is planning a holiday drive for Boggs Avenue and wants help coordinating a drop-off, get in touch through the contact page. Michele is glad to help connect neighbors with the food bank this season.