Greensburg Salem Food launches food program through Ashley Kertes memorial fund

Christina Gongaware Noga knows her late sister would be proud that money raised in her memory is helping combat food insecurity at Greensburg Salem’s Hutchinson Elementary.

Gongaware Noga launched the Ashley Gongaware Kertes Fund last year on behalf of her sister, who died unexpectedly at age 36 in March 2023.

Kertes served almost four years as executive director of the Greensburg Community Development Corporation before taking a job at Greensburg Salem in 2022.

The fund, created to support the school district, has generated $45,000 since last year, according to Gongaware Noga. It’s helping provide bags of nonperishable snacks and meals for Hutchinson Elementary students to take home.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Gongaware Noga said of the bi-weekly program, “because I know what a caring and empathetic person my sister was — how much she cared for the school district and how she put everything into trying to make it better.

“Knowing that her legacy and the memories that everyone has of her directly inspired this and is making a really big difference, it’s amazing,” she said. “I’m very happy.”

District identifies need at Hutchinson

Dubbed the “Pride Pack Pantry,” the food program gives students a juice container, cereal, a few snacks and a lunch item such as macaroni and cheese or ramen noodles.

More than 1,000 bags of food have been given out since March 14, said district spokesperson Kayla Tamer.

The district buys the food every other week and about 10 retired teachers help pack the items into bags. Homeroom teachers distribute them to students to take home.

All 523 of the school’s students are given a bag to take home.

Up until last month, it was the only school in the district to not have some sort of food program, Tamer said.

The Slickville Lions Club gives nearly 70 Metzgar Elementary students food to take home every other week, and the Salvation Army provides weekly food distributions for about 100 students at Nicely Elementary and Greensburg Salem Middle School.

The Delmont and New Alexandria Lions clubs also support the program at Nicely.

The district’s food service allows middle and high school students to pick up dinner before they leave school each day.

Food insecurity is not an unfamiliar concern for Greensburg Salem families. More than half of the district’s students are considered economically disadvantaged, Tamer said.

Nearly 70% of Hutchinson Elementary’s students fall under that designation — the highest percentage among the district’s five schools.

“We felt that for food scarcity, usually middle school and high school students can find a way, if they’re hungry, of getting food — whether it’s at work or from a friend,” Tamer said. “But elementary students who are at home and might be hungry don’t necessarily have the access to that.”

Program inspired by Deer Lakes initiative

Superintendent Ken Bissell, Gongaware Noga and Westmoreland County Commissioner Sean Kertes — Kertes’ husband — were inspired to start the food program by Bissell’s aunt, who launched a similar initiative in the Deer Lakes School District.

Retired teacher Carol McCaskey worked three decades at Deer Lakes’ East Union Intermediate Center. She started a weekend food program in the district in 2013, receiving a $25,000 Olympus Energy grant last year to continue.

Greensburg Salem aims to expand its food program to the rest of its elementary schools in the future, Tamer said.

“We’re very grateful for the Ashley Gongaware Kertes Fund and the family for being so supportive,” she said, “and working with us to identify something that would be a worthwhile program for our students.”

The Ashley Gongaware Kertes Fund aims to host its second annual fundraising event in August, Gongware Noga said. A donation link can be found on the Ashley Gongaware Kertes Fund Facebook page.