Thanks For Giving
Wow! What a response. Thanks to all the individuals and groups who donated an unbelievable amount of nonperishable food and household goods. So let us now shine a light on a representative sample of donors.
The Parade of Pies!
On the day before Thanksgiving, a group of teens marched single file through the food pantry’s distribution operation, bringing 150 pies for neighbors who would soon be waiting in the cold to get the food that they needed for their Thanksgiving celebration.
Twelve members of Dobbs Ferry High School Hands-In community service club carted and carried pies to the pantry.
Assisted by English teacher and club advisor MaryAlice Fahy, the diligent dozen took responsibility for this year’s pantry pie drive, an important event during the holiday season. First, the teens conducted a drive at the school, and then reached out to the greater community. They leveraged social media to raise money to buy additional pies and the Parent Teacher Student Association bought what was needed to reach the 150 goal. The students not only delivered the pies to the pantry on time, they stayed to help volunteers stock the tables with fresh produce, shelf-stable food, protein and household products like detergent and paper products.
First Out of the Gate
Elmwood Day School of White Plains conducted its annual 5K Turkey Trot on November 5, inviting participants to donate shelf-stable food and household products to our pantry.
Several days later, Elmwood teacher Anne Tiffany dropped off the collected items, which filled this green cart three times.
Thanks for these Donations!
• Ardsley United Methodists dropped off what they believed to be their second largest monthly donation of the year.
• Meg Bussert, parishioner of South Presbyterian Church, gathered nonperishable food donations from her neighbors at the Greystone co-op in Yonkers.
• Dobbs Ferry Girl Scout Troop 1687 and Cub Scout Pack 24 collected household products.
These groups also donated nonperishable food and household cleaning products:
• Ardsley’s Club Pilates
• Mercy University
• Alcott School
• Zion Episcopal Church
Finally, a Special Shout-out
The week of Thanksgiving presented the food pantry with a logistical nightmare that reached its peak on Monday, with food piling up in the sanctuary of South Presbyterian Church, which sponsors the pantry. The Monday morning loading dock crew of Bill Constant, Eric Sweating, Jerry Quinlan and Ken Perry did a fantastic job of hauling and presorting donations. But then it was time to bring in Sharon Bilman and Linda Jo Platt. “Hawkeye” Bilman is the pantry’s chief inspector. Platt once single handedly cleared an unscheduled donation that filled six long pews in the sanctuary.
Bilman, (left), and Platt, director of Community Nursery School, managed to sort through, date-check and store most of the wagonloads of donations we received, as time was running out.
Duke Coffey, longtime pantry volunteer and pantry loading dock supervisor, wrote this month’s newsletter. Coffey works tirelessly, and only recently came to realize he’s not 29 years old.
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 