Good afternoon, everybody – Today we served a total of 22 families, including 36 adults, 34 children and 4 seniors.
Our grant application to the Church of St. Barnabas was accepted! Our beloved Barbara M. notified us that, even though they received more grant applications than ever this year, they gave us the total amount we asked for. I’m sure Barbara’s influence had something to do with it, as well as her guidance around how we worded our application so that what we’re doing was crystal clear to the grant committee. Barbara is highly respected at St. Barnabas, and for good reason.
Another piece of good news – one of our most-beloved donor families has offered to help us buy a freezer so that we can offer our clients meats, fish and other frozen foods offered by the Food Bank! Lyn measured this morning to see what size freezer will fit in the kitchen, and she and her husband will be looking at freezers this weekend to see what we should buy. It’s coming true! Our gratitude to this wonderful family is boundless.
Today at the pantry we handed out notices to all the clients entitled “Know Your Rights”, in Spanish and in English. Several clients took more than one so that they could hand them to friends and co-workers. It was a flyer from the ACLU, found and printed out by our pastor, Drew Paton. We’ll be giving them out again next week, just to spread the word around everywhere that everybody in this country deserves to be treated with dignity and fairness, whether they’re documented or not.
Last night an adorable troop of Daisies (pre-brownies), in kindergarten and first grade at Springhurst, visited the pantry. Each girl brought a bag of food from home. After touring the pantry and learning about the existence of hunger and food insecurity in the Rivertowns, they all took turns stocking the shelves with the food they brought. Our thanks go out to the parents who provided the food as well as the parents who shepherded the girls through their tour. The parents and the girls vow that they’ll do this again for us. One of the parents is also a leader of an older troop, and she thought they might make up more of the birthday bags that the Springhurst fourth grade made up for us. Springhurst is a huge supporter of the pantry, and always has been.
January and February are finished, folks – let spring begin!
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 