Good afternoon, everybody – on Wednesday in the morning we served a total of 31 families, including 55 adults, 46 children and 11 seniors. Then in the evening Benny and I served another 5 families with 9 adults and 8 children. This brings us to a total of 36 families with 64 adults, 54 children and 11 seniors. We averaged 27 families a week in June. For the six months from January to June we averaged 29 families a week.
This past Wednesday we had both our monthly green thumb allotment of fruits and vegetables from the Food Bank together with what we got from the CSA, and even some beautiful lettuce from the Roots and Wings garden. People went home LOADED with fresh produce, plus Benny took a bag of bread and danishes from Topps Bakery in Bronxville down to the Dobbs Ferry Senior Center, and Eileen took a huge supply of strawberries and vegetables to the Irvington Senior Center the next day. Our monthly green thumb allotment was much bigger than usual because it was the end of the Food Bank’s fiscal year and they were giving extra food to all the pantries. Ellen and Eileen had to turn some food away, actually. In addition to the produce, they gave us so much bread that our new freezer (thanks, Mahoneys) is stuffed with bread and rolls for next Wednesday. What a week!
This coming Wednesday we’ll have tomatoes, zucchini flowers, basil, swiss chard, tat soi (?), lettuce and cherries from the CSA, and we’ll see what we find in the garden. Summer is here!!
Thanks to Carol for bringing food to us from Zion Episcopal. Zion is one of our most reliable, weekly suppliers of food for the pantry, and Carol brings it to us faithfully.
At Carol’s behest we’re handing out as many jars of peanut butter as possible to the clients. When the Food Bank did that county-wide food drive at all the Stop & Shops, every shopper bought at least one jar of peanut butter for us. It was amazing how everyone bought the same item. Our shelves have been groaning with peanut butter, so on Wednesday every client went home with a giant jar of peanut butter. Good for the children in summer, since they don’t get lunch at school like they do during the year.
A couple of weeks ago Tricia went shopping for furniture at Ashley Home Store on Central Park Avenue in Yonkers. While she was there they gave her some flyers for people to fill out and apply for a free mattress. She brought them to the pantry and we gave them out. There was a referral section, so we put down that the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry was referring the person. One of our clients came away with two mattresses and another got one mattress. Tricia’s going to see if she can get some more of those flyers. A shout-out to Ashley Home Stores for coming up with this offer.!
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 