Food bank faces financial threat

AMENIA — The Food of Life Pantry maintains an organic garden with 52 raised beds in collaboration with the Sharon House Garden Project. This effort provides nutritious produce and food supplies to the hungry in eastern Dutchess County and the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. Discounted canned and dry goods, meats and juices are purchased at regional food warehouses and trucked to the pantry by volunteers.

The pantry is currently struggling to solve three major problems.  Too much rain and wind this summer has seriously reduced their harvest. Hard economic times have increased the number of families in need, and government funding and grants have been reduced by $18,000.

The food pantry is located at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Amenia Union and staffed by a devoted cadre of volunteers from St. Thomas, Grace Episcopal Church in Millbrook, the Sharon Congregational Church in Sharon, Conn., and The Millbrook School.

The outreach program, a brain child of the Rev. Betsy Fisher, Vicar of St. Thomas, was started in 2009 with a grant from Episcopal Charities. According to Fisher, the program began small and has grown rapidly. Last year, 39,915 meals were distributed. This year, in just nine months, 44,775 meals were distributed.  By year end she anticipates that more than 55,000 meals will be given.

“Very few residents realize the numbers of hidden poor in our affluent area. It’s part of a national problem. There are 46.2 million Americans now living below the poverty level, the highest number in 52 years” she said.

Fisher reported that volunteers at the food pantry consider St. Thomas a little church with a big mission and are determined to keep the pantry growing.  

“It’s very hard to pull back once you’ve seen good people — parents and their children — in such need,” she said. “We recently had a father of two come in. He was in his mid-40s and  obviously embarrassed to be there.  As he left with his food order, he stopped to say that he was so thankful for our help and that he was an out-of-work carpenter and wanted to do work on the church in exchange for our food.  He was such a nice man, and I thought how horrible it must be for him not to be able to provide for his wife and children.”

The loss of $18,000 in government and grant cutbacks combined with increased demand has put a cramp in the Food of Life Pantry operation. Temporarily, the food pantry has been forced to reduce the amount of food given to each family member and is searching for additional grants as well as launching a local fundraising campaign. If the fundraising does not replace the government and grant cutbacks, they will have to make serious reductions in their services.

Contributions may be sent to The Food of Life Pantry, 40 Leedsville Road, Amenia Union, NY 12501, or go to www.foodoflifepantry.org to donate.

Submitted by Larry Power.

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