Hello everybody – yesterday we served a total of 28 families, including 44 adults, 47 children and 7 seniors.
Earlier in the week we had received an e-mail from the Food Bank, offering FREE vegetables! I went over there and got a 50-pound bag of potatoes (it didn’t occur to me to think about how I would handle that huge bag when I got to the church), a 50-pound bag of carrots, cucumbers, two kinds of squash, lettuce, bananas and cantaloupe. Miraculously, I called Bruce Platt and he dropped everything to come over to church and help me transport everything from my car into the church kitchen – including those 50-pound bags! Bruce, you are truly a hero!!
The Food Bank warned you to go over the produce after you picked it up, and we did have to throw out many bananas and some squash, but our clients still went home laden with plenty of fresh produce this week.
And this Sunday the CSA starts. We bought a share, plus the farmer, Dan King of Rexcroft Farm, donates a share to us. Thanks to Dan and to Roots & Wings for setting this all up for us. This week we’ll be picking up hydroponic tomatoes, lettuce, radish, mint, spinach, strawberries and possibly peas. They warned that the spinach will have bites out of it because they use no chemical pesticides at Rexcroft Farm, but it will be delicious anyway.
Marc Taiano tells me the kitchen garden behind the church is off to a slow start because of the terrible weather this spring, but soon we’ll be able to harvest from the garden just as we did last summer.
And this past Wednesday several of our pantry clients wandered around the labyrinth in front of the church, picking various herbs they found there, including an herb called “ruda”, which is used to revive someone who has fainted.
Lyn represented us this past Wednesday at a meeting of pantries affiliated with the Food Bank. Thank you, Lyn. One of the topics was how immigration issues are affecting pantries. We’ll see what they had to say.
The Giving Circle of Lower Westchester has given us a large grant, which will be applied directly to the Food Bank. They are a wonderful and caring organization, and we appreciate their help.
Speaking of help, please remember us over the summer. Once school ends, the children can’t count of those free and reduced-fee lunches at school, so families must scramble even harder to feed their families. Bring shelf-stable food to the church or send us a check made out to South Presbyterian Church with “pantry” in the memo line. Or use the Pay Pal feature on our website (www.dobbsferrypantry.org). Or contact me or Lyn at 914-693-0473 and we’ll let you know how you can best help.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 