Feed Our Valley: Battling kidney disease with help from food pantry
New Castle, PA. 37-year-old Craig Smith Jr. and is a single father of one.
For the past eight years, he has had to deal with kidney disease along with making sure there’s food on the table.
Craig told 21 News that his first kidney transplant failed, and his time on the transplant list since then has been a long and uncertain journey.
He said it’s been a journey steeped in low energy and careful movement. However, the most important thing for Smith is being there for his 12-year-old son.
He's taking his circumstances day by day while working at the Hot Dog Hut in Hermitage. To supplement what he can afford to keep food on the table, Craig relies on the Valley Baptist Church's food pantry. He said he has been picking up essential foods at the pantry for the past six years.
Valley Baptist Church, located at 500 Sharon New Castle Rd. in Farrell, opens its food pantry twice a month, serving more than 100 households.
Despite the long waitlist for a kidney, Smith’s church’s pantry has become an express lane to prevent food insecurity for him and his family.
The pantry is open on the second and fourth Tuesdays from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. every month.
So far this year, Mercer County Food Bank has provided the food pantry with 13,375 pounds of food.