Good evening, everybody – This morning we served a total of 40 families, with 67 adults, 62 children and 9 seniors.
Last Thursday I was able to collect 50 diapers plus a package of wipes for each of four of our families, and I’m right that the women themselves can go to the Department of Social Services in Yonkers next month. It turns out that a new application has to be submitted every month, so I picked up more applications and gave them out today. Two more people took applications. They’ll bring them back to me next week and I’ll fax them over to Wendy Armstrong of the Junior League and she’ll see that the women’s names are added to the list. Then on December 16 the women can go to the DSS themselves to get the diapers and at the same time they can fill out and submit another application for the following month. This can turn into a very helpful routine for the mothers as long as they need diapers.
Last Thursday Lyn and I had a great time rubbing elbows with other pantry directors and learning how they operate, as well as getting to know some of the members of the Giving Circle at their annual dinner at the Bonnie Briar Country Club. Eric Nodiff created the program and he’s been its director since it started a few years ago. He has a heart of gold, and the other members have been influenced by him.
Our new partner, Hudson Social, collected food for us last Saturday. Lyn was there and she said it was a great success. I hope some of the people on this list were there.
And last Sunday was the Interfaith Caring Community’s Thanksgiving service. This year it was at South Church. Despite the bad weather it was amazingly well-attended, and many of the attendees brought food, toiletries and cleaning supplies for the pantry. We put a cart at the door for people who brought products for us, and it was overflowing. People came from many towns for this service, and it shows how generous people are in this area.
Our experiment with Springhurst’s program to save food not taken at lunch by the students and pass in on to the pantry is working well. There’s a reliable custodian by the name of Jose who brings the food twice a week and leaves it in our refrigerator. Hope the experiment continues.
So, it was quite a week for the pantry. This has happened in other years at Thanksgiving as well. It’s exciting and gratifying.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 