Good afternoon, everybody – yesterday we served 130 families, including 264 adults, 174 children and 41 seniors, totaling 479 people served. Our stellar delivery team made 47 deliveries throughout Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Irvington and as far as Greenburgh.
I’ll be retiring from the Food Pantry sometime this year. My Co-Director, Vera Halpenny is shouldering more and more of the work of directing the pantry, for which I’m extremely grateful. She’s already made my life so much easier. Thank you, Vera!
One of the things she did was to come to South Church today to receive a donation of food collected by Congregation Rosh Pinah Chavurah of Hastings. They’ve collected food prior to the start of Passover, and they’ll be bringing more food to us when Passover ends. Thanks so much to everybody at Rosh Pinah for joining in this drive, and special thanks to Beverly Kissel and her group for bringing the food to us today. And overarching thanks to volunteers Vera, Duke Coffey and Gretchen Skaggs for being there today to receive the delivery!
This past Saturday, March 20, was a huge one for the Pantry. The Ardsley Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts had spent several weeks collecting food for the Pantry in the bin at Stop & Shop. On Saturday they collected it all and delivered it to Ardsley United Methodist, where they were holding a food drive for us. Then the Scouts stayed to help collect more food donations and to load everything into cars for the trip to the Pantry on Monday. There was so much food that it took two cars – Ken Stahn AND Judy Whelan – to bring it all on Monday morning. Thanks so much to the Ardsley Methodist crew, and thanks to Scout leaders Sheri, Jackie and Mary for organizing and carrying out this major effort! We’ll have food for our clients for quite a while thanks to this event!
Yesterday our clients took home delicious meals prepared by Scaramella’s in Dobbs Ferry. The meals were provided by a very caring and generous donor at The Landing, who has helped us many times before. Our clients loved the meals, and the residents of The Landing have been extremely concerned and helpful to us at the Pantry. We’re grateful to all of you.
Due to the efforts of Feeding Westchester and others, food pantry volunteers were permitted to be vaccinated due to the fact that they supply food to the public. On Tuesday, March 2 quite a few of our volunteers got their first shots at Westchester Community College. This coming Tuesday, March 30, they’ll all be receiving their second shots. This has made a huge difference in the lives of our volunteers, and we’re delighted that the powers that be recognized the importance of vaccinating these volunteers. We’ve been facing the public throughout this pandemic for over a year, and these vaccines will make a big difference in our lives.
A quick shout-out to caterer Renee Kashuba, owner of Made By RK (www.foodmadebyrk.com) . She’s been a friend to the Pantry since the beginning of the pandemic. All summer long she brought fresh soup and goodies for all our clients, and currently once a month she donates 100 bags of rice and 100 bags of black beans for us to give to our clients. All out of the goodness of her heart and in the middle of a busy schedule. Deepest thanks, Renee.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 