April 2026

April was National Food Month, a time to celebrate earth’s bounty and the place it holds in our lives. That focus, plus the end of several months’ hibernation over the brutal winter, may explain all the food-related activity at the pantry during the month. 

Take strawberries, for example. I love strawberries! (I grew up 30 miles from the Strawberry Capital of the World, where school let out in April so students could help with the picking. But I digress…) Strawberries can do so much more than top our breakfast bran flakes. When our monthly Green Thumb allotment included pints of baby strawberries, Feeding Westchester nutritionist, Alyssa Advincula, visited the pantry on April 1 to share recipes for strawberry basil sauce and strawberry pepper salsa. 

Alyssa Advincula, Feeding Westchester nutritionist, and her daughter offer tastes of strawberry salsa

According to Feeding Westchester, a recent study from United for ALICE (acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, i.e., households with incomes above the federal poverty level but not enough to afford basic expenses where they live) reported that 39% of Westchester households cannot afford basic living costs, including food. Very sobering indeed. Now you understand why your mailbox and email inbox contain daily requests for donations to Feeding Westchester.

Speaking of donations, there has been an awesome amount of fundraising activity lately. Acting totally on their own initiative, Liam Pyle and Seamus Fitzpatrick along with a team of DFHS juniors ran a great garage sale on April 12 – and 100% of the proceeds came to the pantry!

Liam Pyle and Seamus Fitzpatrick along with a team of DFHS juniors who know how to run a garage sale. 

Check out these pix of their high- and low-end advertising.

Also in April, the pantry received a generous grant from the Church of St. Barnabas in Irvington, a congregation known for its clothing sales and other fundraising efforts year-round. We were thrilled to be among this year’s recipients.

Luncheon at the Church of St. Barnabas in Irvington, which gave us a generous grant. On the right: Marilyn and Linda, the event organizers.

Kicking off a busy final weekend, on April 25 several volunteers took shifts at Stop & Shop asking shoppers to buy and donate from a list of most-needed items. The occasion was the semiannual drive sponsored by News 4, Telemundo and Stop & Shop. I was there, and I can report that despite the chilling rain, our neighbors were extremely generous. I got the biggest kick from kids who proudly handed over what they’d chosen for us, women who purchased the canned soups they’d want on a day like that and the Uber driver who paused his Instacart shopping to give us some cash. We filled 40 boxes with everything from peanut butter to diapers and took in lots of $$$. 

Shown above: Kristy, Donna and Mary kick off the day at Stop & Shop. Later a smiling Peter greets shoppers – when he isn’t busy schlepping filled boxes up the hill to the pantry. 

There’s a method to all this madness. Did I mention we collected 40 boxes?

Finishing out the month, on April 26 Irvington Presbyterian Church hosted the annual Rivertowns CROP Hunger Walk, part of a global effort to help end hunger. Pantry volunteers – and their families and their dogs – joined our neighbors for the walk north on the aqueduct and RiverWalk to the Tappan Zee and back. Our pantry will benefit from the raised awareness, and some of the proceeds will trickle down to us.

Once again, we gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support from the following organizations and local businesses: Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church, Irvington Presbyterian Church, South Presbyterian Church, Temple Beth Shalom, United Methodist Church, Woodlands Community Temple, Zion Episcopal Church, MOM’s Organic Market, Panera. Stop & Shop, Sunshine Bagel and The Shop. 

This month’s newsletter was written by Ellen Milhan Klein with – for better or worse no help from ChatGPT.–