Steelers, food bank to hold donation drive at training camp

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Westmoreland County Food Bank are partnering to collect nonperishable food donations on the first day of public practice at Steelers training camp .

During the collection from noon to 6 p.m. on July 28 at St. Vincent College in Unity, food bank workers will enter the names of donors in a raffle for a football autographed by Cameron Heyward.

Similar collaborative drives have been held in the past during the Steelers' annual night practices at Latrobe Memorial Stadium midway through the camp. Jennifer Miller, development director at the food bank, said she hopes the switch to an earlier time and date will boost the number of donors.

Summer drives generally attract fewer donors than those held during the winter holidays, she said.

“Unfortunately, hunger is all year long,” she said, “It's not just around the holidays.”

Miller couldn't put a dollar amount to the donations made at previous training camp drives but said several thousand pounds of food have been collected through them over the years. Giant Eagle and the Steelers themselves, she said, are supplementing the effort; the former by matching food donations per pound and the latter by donating money.

A news release noted the importance of the drive in light of the food bank's loss of local funds. In March, Westmoreland County cut the bank's funding by $49,000, as well as that of several other social service organizations.

Matthew Guerry is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2122, mguerry@tribweb.com, or via Twitter at @MattGuerry.