Food for Thought
The community meal resumed on February 4. We served 323 meals in the month of February, averaging 80 meals per week. Of course, things changed dramatically in mid-March when the pandemic made it unsafe to have large numbers of people in the building. We switched from a sit-down meal to a “grab & go” model, distributing meals from the patio to eliminate the foot traffic in the building. The economic impact of the pandemic is evident: In the last 6 weeks, we’ve served 1,244 meals, an average of 207 meals per week.
We also launched an emergency food pantry that opened in early April. Pantries all over the area were closing down, because so many of the volunteers they relied on were in the “vulnerable” population who needed to avoid contact with others when the pandemic hit. Working with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, our pantry is open on Mondays and Wednesdays 12–5pm and on Tuesdays 10am–2pm. Clients wait outside and fill out a form indicating what their household situation is and what kinds of food they need, and then we prepare bags of food for them.
Fellowship Hall has undergone a transformation from a meeting space and now houses much of the pantry food that we distribute.
Our pantry has 3 different food setups:
The first setup is for families or individuals that have their own kitchens and can cook. These boxes contain food to last about 1 week and include pantry staples such as rice, dried beans, pasta, and canned goods.
The second set is called “hotel boxes.” They are given to people that are in emergency housing. These people only have a microwave available to them. These boxes include dishes, utensils, can opener, dish cloths, hygiene items, and microwavable food. The dish cloths are being knitted by a few of our parishioners.
The third setup is for people living in halfway houses with shared basic kitchens. They have access usually to just a microwave. These individuals don’t need dishes, but they just get microwave foods.
All of our pantry boxes include dairy products, frozen food, baked goods, and produce that might be available on any given week.
We are also partnered with the Binghamton Food Rescue for another distribution site on Saturdays. We are now providing boxes of food to over 350 households each month.
Our Community Meal & Pantry Coordinator, Sherry Conklin, says:
I am so grateful to everyone that donates, whether financially or with products, to the programs that keep us going. There have been numerous days that I thought we were out of something and a donation comes in just in time.
We are always looking for donations of microwavable meals, canned chicken, canned meat, hygiene items, and canned pet food.
And most of all, I am very grateful to all the volunteers. I could not do this job without you! It takes the generosity and dedication of our volunteers to make this happen. It is extremely rewarding work, and you would be surprised at how much fun we have. There is something very special that happens when sharing food that is prepared with love and care.