Good evening, everyone – Yesterday, since it was the last Wednesday of the month, we were open from10:00 to 12:00, and again from 5:30 to 7:00. In the morning we served 25 families, including 36 adults, 29 children and 10 seniors. They were served by Benny, Eileen, Ellen, Kevin, Lyn and Mary Anne. Then in the evening, despite the terrible weather, we served another 6 families, including 10 adults, 7 children and 2 seniors. They were served by me, Benny, Kevin and Martha. This made a total of 31 families, including 46 adults, 36 children and 12 seniors. For the month of October we served 133 families, including 207 adults, 155 children and 40 seniors. We averaged 33 families a week in October.
This week we received a tremendous gift from the Anbinder Family Foundation. They are a wonderful philanthropic foundation. Once we’re sure they won’t mind if we publicize the fact that they’ve given us a grant (some foundations prefer to remain anonymous) we’ll post the news on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Our pantry is so lucky that the Anbinder Foundation is aware of us.
This week also, two individuals arranged with PayPal, through our website (www.dobbsferrypantry.org), to have regular monthly donations given to the pantry. And another person did this over the summer. This is a tremendous benefit to us – to have a regular, consistent source of income, be it $10 or $15 a month or more, to rely on. This means we can count on ordering food regularly from the Food Bank because we know we have a steady flow of gifts from caring individuals to count on. Thank you so much to these individuals.
Sad news: This past Sunday was the final Sunday for our share of produce from the Roots & Wings CSA. Our clients have grown accustomed to having a variety of fruits and vegetables to choose from every week. We’ve also been able to offer produce from the Roots & Wings garden and the Springhurst garden, but all good things must come to an end (except that I still see some kale and herbs in the Roots & Wings garden). Our clients can still count on our once-a-month Green Thumb grant from the Food Bank, which will provide some fresh fruits and vegetables all winter long, but it will be a huge downward adjustment – both for them and for us. Thank you, especially to Roots & Wings, for giving us such a wonderful summer. And thank you to Springhurst for being one of the few schools to maintain a garden for the children (and their parents) to learn from. This will stay with the children for the rest of their lives.
We just heard from Spinghurst! They will be doing three food drives for us throughout the school year, as they have for several years past. Debra Borwick is the soul and body of the Kids Can! campaign, and we thank her from the bottom of our hearts for the effort she puts in to carry out these food drives. If anybody is able to help with these drives, please let us know and we’ll put you in touch with Debra. Thanks and thanks again, Debra.
A final thank-you is in order for the Philanthropy Committee of the Community Nursery School at South Church for providing our clients with costumes for Halloween. Many of these families do not have extra funds to provide their children with costumes, but with people in the community like the Philanthropy Committee, gently used costumes were made available both last week and this week – and many people went happily home with costumes for their children and grandchildren. Those costumes were adorable. A thousand thanks, CNS!
We’ve still been blessed with more beautiful warm weather. Soak it up, everybody.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 