Good afternoon, everybody – I wasn’t at the pantry in the morning, but the team soldiered on and did a great job. In the morning we served a total of 29 families, including 49 adults, 44 children and 10 seniors. Then, since it was the last Wednesday of the month, in the evening Benny, Andrew and I served another 18 families with 44 adults, 25 children and 6 seniors. This brought us to a total of 47 families, 93 adults, 69 children and 16 seniors for the day. We averaged 36 families a week in July.
We have some dedicated volunteers at this pantry. On Monday morning we received a huge delivery of food we ordered from Feeding Westchester, Ellen was there to receive it, as was Eileen, Andrew, and I don’t know who else. Then on Tuesday Ellen and Eileen went to Feeding Westchester in Elmsford to pick up our monthly allotment of fresh produce, brought it back to church and put it all away. I don’t know if anybody else helped them, but it was at least the two of them. Then on Wednesday before the pantry opened we got another huge delivery of food that wasn’t available from Feeding Westchester but was necessary for our families. This had been ordered by Ellen, and was received before 8:00 a.m. by Andrew, Enzina and Ellen. That same day Eileen, as she does every week, picked up our weekly bread from Stop & Shop while Ellen, as she does every week, picked up our weekly bagels from the New York Bagel Authority. See how we operate?
Then there are the bins. The one at Irvington Library is overseen by Tom. The one at Dobbs Ferry Library is overseen by me. The one at Greenburgh Town Hall is overseen by me and/or Mary Anne. And we’ll have another bin soon at Stop & Shop and someone will oversee that one.
Then there’s Carol, who every week brings boxes of food donated by both Zion Episcopal Church and Dobbs Ferry Lutheran. And then she organizes all our shelves.
Then there’s Mary Anne who searches all the local supermarkets for products that are on sale, buys a big quantity, and brings it to church and puts it away.
Then there are those of us who have just shown up every week, week after week, for years. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. I think there’s a certain type of person who chooses to help at a food pantry. You have to have a heart of gold, time and energy to dedicate to all these details, and the ability to stay with it for years and years.
I think there’s also a certain type of person who wants to be on this e-mail list. These are people who care about hunger and need and want to know that something’s being done about it. People from this list drop food off to us, send us checks and make donations using the Pay Pal function on our website (www.dobbsferrypantry.org). Keep it up, everybody. We appreciate you.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 