October 1st at the Food Pantry

Good afternoon, everybody – Today we served a total of 19 families, with 35 adults, 28 children and 5 seniors.  They were served by me, Benny, Eileen, Ellen, Jay, Lyn and Matt R. (welcome, Matt, and thanks for today).

For the month of September we served 173 families, with 306 adults, 271 children and 61 seniors.  Last month we served 122 families with 213 adults, 188 children and 48 seniors.

All summer people have been arriving earlier and earlier in the hopes of getting one of the few bottles of oil or packages of flour.  Recently tiffs have broken out over who took a turn out of order.  Since by the time we volunteers arrive there’s already a crowd, we have no idea in what order people arrived.  Today, following a suggestion by Dale Williams of the Midnight Run, we gave out numbers and there was no disagreement whatsoever.  The clients were relieved and thanked us for instituting this new procedure.

We have a new contact at Dobbs Ferry High School.  A student by the name of Brianna L. has offered to see how she can help to organize some help for us at the high school, such as organizing a food drive right at the high school.  Only a month ago the varsity football team spent a day at Stop & Shop for us and provided us with eleven grocery carts’ worth of food bought by customers.  Any help we can get from the high school, together with the middle school and Springhurst, will be vital to us, especially as the holidays come around.  We’ll stay in contact with all three schools as much as we can.  And we’ll lift them up on the South Church facebook page as often as possible.

I had sent an e-mail to the Ardsley Cares committee (they’re having a special outreach day on October 25).  I heard back from Christine Ginsberg, who is president of the Ardsley PTA and is helping to organize the activities on October 25.  Their plans are already solidified for the activity, but she and I are putting our heads together to see what other help the schools may be able to provide for us at some other point this year.

– Molly Rodriguez, October 1st