Good afternoon, everybody – This morning we served a total of 35 families, including 59 adults, 52 children and 10 seniors. We had three more hams to give out from the Dobbs Ferry Woman’s Club, so those clients went home happy.
Plus everyone got a gift card, due to the generosity of the parishioners of The Church of St. Barnabas in Irvington. We even have some left over for the people who come next week.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, we had over 100 Easter bags displayed in the church sanctuary, where the clients gather, so that the clients’ children could chose a bag to take home and enjoy the candies and goodies inside. These bags also came from The Church of St. Barnabas, put together by the children of the Sunday school. And we’ll have more of those to give out next week also. A virtual hug goes to everyone at St. Barnabas who cared enough to donate to the organizers of this project. 
This was an intense weekend for the pantry. The Food Bank for Westchester, together with NBC Channel 4 and Telemundo Channel 47, did a food drive at every Stop & Shop in Westchester County. If a pantry could provide volunteers to help the Food Bank staff at the food drive, the pantry got to keep all the food. Our pantry provided enough volunteers that my husband, Benny, was free to help the Food Bank staff at the Stop & Shop in North White Plains. This means we got to keep all the food collected from TWO stores. From our local store alone we ended up with 2,150 pounds of food. Then Monday the Food Bank volunteers from North White Plains came with another carload of food from that store. The shoppers at Stop & Shop are an amazingly generous and concerned bunch. The food is stored all over South Church. It looks like a lot, but even that food will disappear fast. Thanks to all our volunteers who worked hard, representing the pantry all day long, and a special shout-out to Benny for traveling to North White Plains.
Spring Community Partners, the group that started the food pantry, is again looking for donations to the Dobbs Ferry Village Summer Camp scholarship fund. There are a number of families whose children need to go to the summer camp but who can’t afford the fee. Last year, several kind people from this list made donations to that fund. This year Spring needs 10 donations of $160 each to cover the costs of Senior Camp (grades 1-6) and 6 donations of $200 each to cover the costs of Teen Camp (grades 6-9). If anybody on this list is able to help, please contact Robin Larkins of Spring Community Partners at rlarkins63@aol.com. Or just reply to this e-mail and I’ll put you in touch with the right people.
Lyn and I were interviewed this past Monday at Greenburgh Town Hall by intern Noor Brewster on the Greenburgh Public Access television station. The show will be broadcast some time in May on Channel 75 for Cablevision and Channel 34 for FIOS. The schedule of programs can be found on Greenburgh’s website at www.greenburghpublicaccess.com. We’re grateful to Town Supervisor Paul Feiner for setting this up and being so supportive of the pantry.
We were visited today by Susie Zachman of Better Beginnings, a nonprofit organization she’s starting to help parents of young children encourage their children to eat in a healthy way. Two mothers – one who’s about to give birth and one who just gave birth – expressed interest in participating in her program. Susie told us she’s also available to visit from time to time with samples of recipes using ingredients that are available at the pantry but are unfamiliar to our clients. The clients can taste the food and learn how to cook it.
We were also visited by a representative of the Giving Circle of Lower Westchester to see how the pantry runs. We just applied to them for a grant, so hopefully the representative liked what she saw. They may come again on April 26 when more representatives can come. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we qualify for this grant.
Hope everybody’s enjoying the holidays and the warm weather.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 