Two Cambria County women founded the Fresh Start Soap Pantry to help people in need get hygiene products. Now, they need donations.
Tina Dallape and Tricia McBreen started the soap pantry earlier this year as a project for their business leadership class through the John B. Gunter Community Leadership Initiative.
Dallape and McBreen collect hygiene products like shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste to create hygiene kits. They give those kits at no cost to people in need, whether they’re homeless, recovering addicts, single parents or they just don’t have the money.
Each kit costs about $6-$8 to make.
The soap pantry won $500 for taking 3rd place at PITTchFEST in June. The founders have saved up that money along with other donations and are looking for ways to improve the packaging for the hygiene kits. They also want to spread the word about the soap pantry to get consistent donations.
Eventually they want to help hundreds of families across the county because they said the need is out there.
“If you have to make that decision between whether your family eats or do you buy toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap things like that. So it’s been all types of people in different scenarios who reached out to us who we’ve been able to support,” said Tina Dallape, the co-founder of the Fresh Start Soap Pantry.
For more information on the Fresh Start Soap Pantry, visit their website.
