In response to the negative impacts of COVID-19 within our community, OpenArc partnered with other Pittsburgh-based IT Staffing firms to help raise a substantial donation to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.  PGHTechFuse featured the donation drive in a recent article.

Message from our President: “OpenArc is proud of the opportunity join our competitors with the common goal of helping those effected throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area,” said Bethany Simon, President.

A version of this article was originally posted on PGHTechFuse.

In response to the Pittsburgh region experiencing a dramatic increase in food insecurity from the on-going COVID-19 Pandemic, a cohort of Pittsburgh-based IT staffing firms decided to do something about it.

Over the course of a few weeks, Synergy Staffing and Raeder Landree mobilized more than a dozen IT staffing firms to raise $78,000 for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. A check was presented to the Food Bank on April 28.

The firms that participated in addition to Synergy Staffing and Raeder Landree, include eNGINE, OpenArc, JH Technical Services, Oxford Solutions, AC Coy, Mastech Digital, PEAK Technical Staffing, CPR, CEI, Enkompas and TEK Connexion.

As cited in the article, “The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank has seen a dramatic increase in food insecurity due to the COVID-19 crisis the Food Bank has responded by:”

• Providing 4.1 million pounds of food
• More than 100,000 pounds to nearly 1,800 people through its emergency food assistance program at its warehouse in Duquesne alone
• More than 600,000 pounds of food through its drive-up distributions
• More than 56,000 pounds (2,250 food boxes) to 30 NEW partner agencies
• It’s worked with school districts and community organizations to ensure children have access to approximately 25,000 Grab and Go meals
• It’s assisted 342 people with completing SNAP applications, resulting in 340,000 meals (more than $1 million in benefits)
• Rolled out a new home delivery program collaboration resulting in 29,000 pounds of food being delivered to the doorstep of more than 1,100 individuals in our region
• In the past six weeks, it had more than 19,000 visits to its “Get Help” page. A typical six-week span would result in about 1,100 views.

Read the full article titled, “PITTSBURGH IT STAFFING FIRMS TAKE A “BYTE” OUT OF HUNGER:” at https://pghtechfuse.com/teq/pittsburgh-it-staffing-firms-take-a-byte-out-of-hunger/

PGHTECHFUSE, RETRIEVED APRIL 29, 2020.

Photo credit: PGHTECHFUSE, 2020. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. https://pghtechfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Screen-Shot-2020-04-29-at-11.21.44-AM.png