Good afternoon, everybody – today, despite the bad weather, we served 31 families, including 55 adults, 42 children and 12 seniors for a total of 109 people served.
This morning we didn’t have any produce for our clients. We remember the days in spring, summer and fall when we took the CSA and Roots and Wings garden for granted, and were used to offering a variety of fruits and vegetables to our clients every week. In winter, once a month we receive a big supply of produce from Feeding Westchester, which will happen next week, but for the other weeks we either have nothing to offer or one of our volunteers goes to Stop & Shop and purchases some produce to be given the next day. We really appreciate everyone’s monetary donations during the winter to help us provide plenty of fresh produce for our clients.
When we first started the pantry back in 2013 all we had to offer were canned vegetables and fruits. Gradually our clients got used to having beautiful, fresh produce, and now they’re disappointed if we don’t have it. I’m glad they appreciate the fresh produce that’s grown in our area, and many clients have learned about fruits and vegetables they didn’t know about.
Dobbs Ferry High School is helping us again. A teacher by the name of Kelly Ravo, who is the Ecology Club Advisor, contacted me and told me the students are collecting cans and bottles at school, and this week they’ll be taking them to Stop & Shop to deposit. They’ll then take the money and use it to buy food for us at Stop & Shop, and they’ll bring it to us next Wednesday during their lunch hour at 11:45 a.m. What a unique idea, and we can certainly use the food.
Ardsley United Methodist is helping us as well. Ken Stahn showed up with fifteen bags of food collected from the congregation. We’ll be able to give it all out next week.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 