Thousands line up for food giveaway in downtown Youngstown

Loads of folks line up as early at 7:00 am,

with boxes and bags in hand to receive food

which they believe, will help their dollar stretch.

Here are my two cents about Y-Town:


The Mobile Express was present at one of the largest food distributions we have ever been to. Russ and I were impressed by event organization and the generosity of New Life Church and Second Harvest Food Bank of Mahoning Valley. Below is a link to the story on the news in Youngstown:

Thousands line up for food giveaway in downtown Youngstown - 21 News Now, More Local News for Youngstown, Ohio -

Within the video you can see our gracious host and friend Mike Iberis who is executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Mahoning Valley. He invited us to participate in this event as well as join him on the local morning show at NBC. We have not found footage of that but word is that many of the Youngstownians were up that early and actually thought we have a good message--I guess there was not too much sleep in my eyes at 5:30 am!

Here you can see the sea of green volunteers.

So many hands made light work and they seemed happy to be of service.

Volunteers prepared and handed out food, painted faces, dished ice cream cones, performed for those in line and shepherded folks throughout the process.

Snapped this picture late in the day after 6000 people came through the line to receive over 200,000 lbs of food. Pictured here: Second Harvest Food Bankers Angie Hakeem, Mark Litzinger and our very own Russell Allen.

On a side note, Mike Iberis took us out to eat at a lovely restaurant called Alberini's--one of the best meals I have had. Just a snippet of what we experienced: warm pepperoni bread fresh from the oven, succulent pork chop atop a mound of mashed potatoes, penne pasta with broccoli, a tour of the wine cellar, traditional Italian cookies and a goodbye hug from Mrs. Alberini! I fully intend to visit this establishment again--thanks Mike!