Good afternoon, everybody. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks and we haven’t been able to post, but here we are, back again! Last Wednesday we served 102 families, including 207 adults, 148 children and 30 seniors, for a total of 385 people served. During the month of August, by the way, we averaged 112 families and 414 people a week. Let’s see what the fall brings us in terms of numbers served.
I must continually thank Spring Community Partners for standing by us as we envision this pandemic pantry. Robin Larkins, in particular, has been tireless in her efforts to help us in so many different ways. She’s everywhere at once!
Throughout the summer we were providing Stop & Shop gift cards to all our clients every week. We loved doing that because it gave our clients some choice over what to buy, but we couldn’t keep it up forever. At this point we’ll be giving gift cards once a month at the end of the month. Clients will receive shelf-stable food and produce every week and a gift card, varying in amount depending on the size of the family, once a month. Everyone will get the same box and bag except for a few especially large families, who will receive a box with larger quantities of food.
Donations have continued to be generous. This past Saturday Ardsley United Methodist Church did another food drive for us which provided so much food that Benny’s car was packed to the gills with bags and boxes of food to bring to the pantry on Monday. It warms my heart that AUMC’s donors have been so responsive throughout the summer, not to mention the members of AUMC including Judy Whelan, Ken Stahn and all the others, who have worked so hard for us. Thanks to you and your pastor!
The USDA will again be providing prepared breakfasts and lunches to all the students in the Dobbs Ferry schools at least until the end of the year. This will be a big relief to our clients who count on that food for their children.
We still have Renee Kashuba (www.foodmadebyrk.com) with us! She’ll be supplying us with products she buys at her food-providers’ outlet and we’ll reimburse her at the end of the month. And in between all of this she’s continuing with her catering services (as she did for the socially-distanced birthday party for one of our church members), so everybody on this list can keep her in mind throughout the fall and into the holidays.
Please always remember the pantry when you’re making monetary contributions. You can send us a check made out to the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry or use the PayPal function on our website at www.dobbsferrypantry.org. People on this list have been extremely enthusiastic in helping us, and we deeply appreciate your keeping us in mind.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 