Good afternoon, everybody – Yesterday we served 96 families, including 183 adults, 125 children and 41 seniors, for a total of 349 people. Last week we served 96 families and the week before 95, so maybe this will be our new normal for the weeks when we don’t give Stop & Shop gift cards. The last Wednesday of September, which was the last time we gave gift cards in addition to food, we served 132 families. This coming Wednesday, since it’s the last Wednesday of the month, we’ll be giving gift cards again, so we’ll see how many people arrive.
Speaking of gift cards, in November and December we want to give gift cards twice instead of once due to the holidays. This will be a tremendous expense for us, though, since so many people want the dignity and independence of being able to choose for themselves what they want to buy instead of the prepackaged box we give them. I know we can look to the people on this list to come through for us with extra donations to help us help our clients.
Have I mentioned that we’re back to offering prepared meals to our clients from local restaurants in addition to what they get from us? Two weeks ago the clients took home roast pork with potatoes and peas from The Cookery in Dobbs Ferry. The packages come in a couple of different sizes, depending on the size of the family. This past Wednesday the meals were provided by Harper’s Restaurant in Dobbs Ferry, and next week it will be River City Grille in Irvington. This is a group of restaurants by the name of On The Line who want to help in any way they can. Our clients will be eating delicious food from these restaurants for several weeks to come.
We had a wonderful time at the pantry fundraiser at Sam’s Restaurant. It was mostly take-out because many people are not ready to eat inside a restaurant. It went so well that we’re thinking of doing similar fundraisers at other restaurants in the area – maybe one every couple of months or so. We’ll definitely keep you posted.
I was contacted by a new group by the name of Dobbs Ferry for Social Justice. The email was from cofounder Marissa O’Hare, who said the group already consists of 63 members! And they want to know how the group can help the pantry. We’ll be working together to come up with a plan for the best way for them to support us. I’m proud to live in a village that’s forming a group specifically for social justice.
We were visited yesterday by Assemblyperson Tom Abinanti and his assistant, Alyssa Jacobs. They brought us a new supply of masks and hand sanitizer. We offer these to any client who needs them, and we were running low. Thanks so much to Tom and Alyssa or keeping us well-supplied.
Thanks also to Ardsley United Methodist Church. They did another food drive for us this past Saturday, and Ken Stahn dropped off bag after bag of food donated by the church members and generous people from the community. I don’t know what we’d do without faithful people like the folks at Ardsley Methodist. And they’re doing it again on October 31. We can use it all!
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 