Heritage plans to remodel Braddock building as new headquarters, kitchen for nutrition program

As it enters its 41st year as a human services agency in the Monongahela Valley, Heritage Community Initiatives has become a victim of its own success.

Based in a former Mellon Bank building in Braddock, the agency operates programs in transportation, nutrition and early childhood education. Fueled by needs during the pandemic, Heritage’s budget has doubled to $6.2 million a year in the past two years as its food program expanded to more than 200,000 meals annually.

As a result, President and CEO Paula McWilliams said Tuesday the agency has begun an effort to raise more than $3 million in the next 18 months to renovate the nearby Cuda Building that it already owns. The goal is to put the agency’s offices on the first floor of the former Italian specialty foods store and a commercial kitchen to produce meals for its nutrition program in the basement.

Currently, Heritage uses the kitchen at the Woodland Hills School District administrative office in nearby North Braddock, but the program has grown from about 170,000 scratch-cooked, nonprocessed meals to more than 200,000 in the past year.

“We’ve outgrown that kitchen dramatically,” McWilliams said during an interview as the agency celebrated the 25th anniversary of Heritage Transit in the Cuda Building. The agency has designs ready, and the plan is to have the renovations done in about 18 months.

“There’s a lot of groundwork that has already been done,” McWilliams said. “It’s a matter of raising the funds. The longer it takes for us to move, the longer it takes to provide even more meals to people who need them.”

The agency has owned the building for about 20 years, and previous plans for an upscale restaurant, a coffee shop and a popcorn store were never completed.

The transportation program operates four vans to serve residents in 16 communities by providing rides six days a week on four fixed routes. On July 1, the agency expanded its service through a new provider and operates as the only state-funded transportation program operated by a human services program, which U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, called “a model we can show everyone.”

Right now, about 67% of its riders use Heritage to connect with the system run by Pittsburgh Regional Transit. PRT has plans to begin operating microtransit routes similar to Heritage, but McWilliams said they can continue to work together.

“It is our fondest hope that we can operate in tandem to provide that kind of service,” McWilliams said. “The only way you can have a vibrant transportation system is to work together.”