An effort is under way to replenish food pantry stocks after the busy holiday season.
The all-volunteer Schenectady Shares began launching campaigns to restock food pantries after the busy holiday season three years ago. It works to restock food pantry shelves and collect donations for food pantries to purchase items from the Regional Food Bank. Democratic Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy said Tuesday the group is a “remarkable model” in raising awareness of food insecurity:
“The community volunteers have come together to help close that gap and to make a difference and bring stability into so many people’s lives. It’s really a great record, a great performance that the team has put together here. I thank the volunteers; I thank St. Luke’s,”
During the campaign, Schenectady Shares will collect food from more than 50 collection sites throughout the Schenectady County.
Volunteers then sort through the non-perishables and give the donations to providers like the Daily Bread Food Pantry at St. Luke’s Church in Schenectady. The organization deposits funds collected from donations into the food pantries’ Regional Food Bank accounts, which they can then use to purchase items.
Last year’s campaign collected more than 22,000 pounds of non-perishables and about $25,000 for the 20 pantries that participated. This year, the all-volunteer organization wants to collect 30,000 pounds of food and raise $30,000 for 28 food pantries. Jacqueline Clute, volunteer executive director of the food pantry at St. Luke’s, says she sees a lot of senior citizens utilizing the services:
“They rely on food pantries, their neighbors, their communities, their places of worship. So, we see a lot of that, we see a lot of people who have been here for a few years and still there’s some language barriers, so working, they have part time jobs but it’s not enough to help them,”
Clute notes that anyone might need the support at some point.
“You know, you could have a car and crash it and need to pay to replace it and have no money left for food. Where would you go? You’d go to a food pantry, so we’re like a stop gap,”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in Schenectady County is 14 percent while the poverty rate in the city of Schenectady is 23 percent.
Schenectady Shares co-chair Carmel Patrick — a Schenectady city councilor — says the Daily Bread food pantry has seen a 25 percent increase in need in the last year.
“Many of the people that we are seeing at at this food pantry are immigrant populations, people for whom English has not been their first language, and the working poor, I mean I think that that’s something that I really want to make sure folks understand that, you know there are a lot of people out there that are working. But because of the inflation, because of the rise of prices they still have a hard time,”
The effort runs until February 15.
