ARCHBALD, Pa. — Twenty-five thousand pounds of produce filled the DPW garage in Archbald Tuesday. It was donated by produce wholesaler William Rosenstein & Sons.
Their loss is the borough's gain.
"All the wholesalers lost 50% of their business when things shut down, schools shut down, restaurants. We were left with this inventory of packages, consumer packages, institutional packages," said co-owner Jamy Rosenstein.
Rosenstein said the pallets of potatoes, peppers, and other vegetables can't be sold to grocery stores.
"Instead of letting it go to waste, I immediately started rounding up whatever I could put it on trucks and sent it towards the city of Scranton," he added.
The Rosenstein family has donated 200,000 pounds of food to pantries and municipalities all across Lackawanna County.
Tuesday, it was Archbald's turn.
"It's going to take some people to get it ready and separated so we can get it to the residents of our community," Archbald Borough Council Vice President Michael Ossont said.
Borough employees, council members, and police officers spent the day separating and bagging the food.
The produce will be distributed to families in the borough. Archbald's mayor told Newswatch 16 her community is feeling the economic impact of this pandemic with many people out of work and seniors now homebound.
"It's hard, but with everybody coming together and supporting each other like this in the community, it just boosts up the morale a lot for people," Mayor Shirley Barrett said.
The borough of Archbald will be doing a drive-thru distribution at the DPW garage Wednesday at 10 a.m.