When Pantry Volunteers Deliver to Homebound Clients, They Offer More Than Food
Every Wednesday morning people wait in line for food, and even though the pantry doesn’t open for several hours, they’re eager to get what they need for their family. Missing from this line are the clients with serious health issues or disabilities that keep them at home, the older clients who are too frail to stand in line. All are vulnerable and need food.
That’s why seven volunteers synchronize their efforts, ensuring that the 12 to 15 clients currently on our homebound list receive a delivery every Wednesday. Robin Larkins reaches out to these clients, and confirms deliveries with pantry volunteers. Larkins gives the list to Suzy Barnett, who packs bags with nonperishables with the help of Sharon Bilman.
On Wednesdays, Barnett adds vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs to the bags. Barnett and Bilman know these clients well and want them to have what they need, so they try to match the amounts and foods to the family — the client who can’t eat gluten, the one who sips protein drinks. Bilman, Dan Brodhead, Kim Parvin, Krisanne Bayer and Les Radoman deliver the food to our clients in Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley and Irvington. Typically, a volunteer delivers to the same clients every week, often forming friendships. One day, life will intervene and a client will move away to live with a relative or move into assisted care. Until then, there are deliveries to be made.
DELIVERY DAY
On an October day, when the air was crisp and the blue sky made everything feel hopeful, Les Radoman loaded his car with bags of food for clients in Dobbs Ferry and Ardsley. Finding a parking spot on Main Street in Dobbs Ferry can be challenging, so Radoman pulled into a spot, the kind where a parking ticket is a strong possibility, put on his blinkers, rushed up the stairs, placed the heavy bags in front of the door, knocked, then hurried back to his car to get more bags. These clients can count on him to deliver between 12:15 and 12:30 p.m. The next client greeted him at the door, and the next yelled “thank you!” as Radoman dashed back to his car.
He kept moving, but stopped to buy a Carvel ice cream sandwich, a favorite of a client who’s very ill, a client Radoman has befriended while making weekly deliveries. An aide answered the door, and Radoman handed her the food. The client spends most of her time in bed, resting, but today she sat on the couch so that she could talk with Radoman, a connection to the outside world. He asked how she’s coping. She shared her fears, her certainty of what comes next as her disease progresses. He listened, then told her that the pantry volunteers send her love, they’re thinking of her, and he wanted to know more.
Radoman held in his emotions, until he returned to his car. Then he turned sad, the hopefulness gone, despite the blue sky.
He’ll be back next week.
Suzy Barnett, Sharon Bilman and Les Radoman give it their best for our homebound clients. “It’s nice to have someone who cares, who shows up every week,” says Bilman. “We’re trying to make them feel as if we’re neighbors, not just dropping the bag and running off. We chit chat at the door.”
Krisanne Bayer is our backup delivery person if another volunteer can’t make it. Penny, a mini goldendoodle, tags along. Bayer enjoys talking with the clients, who love seeing Penny.
Larkins coordinates the deliveries, but she’s made deliveries, too. “You wish you could do more, you worry about some of the people. But you take your piece of what we can do and realize we’re part of a solution,” says Larkins. “You come away with gratitude for what the pantry does, how it affects people’s week.”
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Thank you, Dobbs Ferry Girl Scouts, for your donation of birthday cake kits. Everyone deserves a happy birthday, and thanks to you, our clients will have one. And we couldn’t help our neighbors in need without the generosity of surrounding communities.
Karen of The Scarsdale Woman’s Club, a longtime donor, recently dropped off yet another generous donation. Our clients appreciate everything you do to help us help them.
Woodlands Community Temple of White Plains held a food drive for the pantry, and it was a huge success. Val Fox, Sandi Lieb and Paul Storfer delivered the food to the pantry.
Thanks also to members of Irvington’s Immaculate Conception Church, who recently made a big donation to the pantry. Tom and Lynn Gambardella and Mary Toomy, a pantry volunteer, dropped off the donation.
WANT TO HELP?
Please consider donating money or nonperishable food to the pantry. All donations go directly to helping our neighbors in need, and monetary donations are tax deductible.
Kimberly Janeway, a pantry volunteer, wrote this month’s newsletter
Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry 