The QMNTY Continuum expanded again this week with the opening of the QMNTY Pantry & Café at 539 E. Ohio St. on Pittsburgh’s North Side, adding daily free meals and expanded grocery access to a growing block of LGBTQ+ community services.
Led by TransYOUniting and Proud Haven, the new storefront officially opened Thursday afternoon with a ribbon cutting attended by about 50 community members.
The pantry and café will be open daily from 4 to 8 p.m., with prepared meals served from 4 to 6 p.m. on days they are available. Organizers say they are working toward offering hot meals every day. Free coffee will also be available on select mornings, depending on volunteer availability.
Inside the space Thursday, volunteers served plates to guests touring the café. The mood was both celebratory and reflective, marking the latest step in a rapid expansion of services along East Ohio Street.
The new café grew out of increased demand for food assistance late last year, when a 43-day federal government shutdown stalled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for thousands of Pennsylvanians. According to organizers, requests for groceries doubled during that period. TransYOUniting, which already operated a nonperishable food pantry, worked to keep up while navigating funding and staffing challenges.
“We built the QMNTY Continuum because there was nowhere else for people like us to go. No safety net, no real belonging,” said Dena Stanley, founder and executive director of TransYOUniting. “Our community needed a place that saw us, affirmed us, and fought for us.”
The pantry and café is the third QMNTY space on the same stretch of East Ohio Street. The QMNTY Center at 525 E. Ohio St. serves as an LGBTQ+ community center, operated collaboratively by TransYOUniting and Proud Haven. A few doors away, the QMNTY Closet at 517 E. Ohio St. provides gently used clothing, shoes, hygiene products, and shelf-stable goods at no cost.
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Together, the three storefronts form a corridor of support, offering clothing, food, gathering space, and connections to housing and other resources.
Organizers say the café model is unique in the region. While other organizations provide food assistance, no other queer-run space locally operates a functional café and pantry designed specifically with LGBTQ+ residents in mind. The storefront offers both perishable groceries and prepared meals.
The expansion was completed for approximately $5,000, funded through existing grants and community donations. The broader QMNTY Continuum initiative has also been supported in part by the 2025 J.M.K. Innovation Prize, a national award that includes $175,000 in unrestricted funding. Ongoing programming in the pantry and café is supported by the City of Pittsburgh Office of Violence Prevention, the City’s Food Justice Fund, 412 Food Rescue, restaurant partners, volunteers, and individual donors.
In the coming weeks, staff plan to add charging stations and Wi-Fi access inside the café, an online ordering system to allow people to select groceries for pickup, and organizers are working toward delivery options for those without reliable transportation.
Like other QMNTY spaces, the pantry and café relies heavily on community involvement. Visitors to the drop-in QMNTY Center frequently volunteer across programs, contributing to daily operations and upkeep.
With Thursday’s opening, TransYOUniting and Proud Haven marked another expansion along East Ohio Street continuing to build a continuum of care designed to meet the growing needs of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ community.