Community News

The Many Ways the Rivertowns Provide Food Support for the Needy

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December 29, 2020

By Robert Kimmel–

Providing meals for the needy, whose numbers have grown significantly during this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an ongoing project for many rivertown community organizations, and their pursuits have helped thousands grappling with food insecurity.

Participating local groups have been assisted financially by Westchester County’s Community Table Partnership, whose mid-year grants totaling $600,000 also indirectly helped a number of hard-hit restaurants by purchasing meals prepared by their staffs.

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Among the 17 organizations that qualified for grants, the Rotary Club of the Tarrytowns, was awarded $20,000 by Westchester County and has been successful in raising a total of $116,200 directed toward feeding those in need. The Rotary Club began its food assistance projects early in 2020 just after the pandemic arrived, arranging meals for families in need as well as for first responders such as the Tarrytown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Sleepy Hollow EMS and Phelps Hospital’s medical workers. Meals were ordered from several local restaurants.

Free Hot Food in Tarrytown

The Rotary Club has continued its food assistance projects, generously supporting the Tarrytown Community Opportunity Center, (COC) and the RHMS Life Center in Sleepy Hollow. Open Door and the Ronald McDonald House has also benefited from its efforts. Partnering with C-Town, Latina Esquina and the Los Andes Bakery, The Rotary has given disadvantaged persons gift certificates totaling $22,000 for use at those food markets. The Rotary has provided more than 8,000 meals through its efforts, according to Rotarian JoAnne Murray, who has helped manage many of these ventures.

Continuing its holiday fund raising efforts, the Rotary is accepting donations through its website and also through an arrangement with a small retail liquor store in Irvington, My Sherry & More, whereby 20% of the revenue from designated purchases will go toward feeding the needy. On a regular, ongoing basis, food donations left at Tarrytown’s Village Hall since last March, “…have resulted in approximately 30 carloads of food being contributed to the Food Pantry to date,” according to Rich Slingerland, Tarrytown Administrator, who also serves as the Rotary Club’s President. He defines the Club’s work raising funds for the meals as a “team effort.”

Murray adds that the RSHM Life Center, which was accepting gift certificates only for a period, will begin serving meals again as of January 6^th, when the Rotary will again be providing meals to both the Life Center and COC.

The Rotary supports what the Community Opportunity Center, at 105 Wildey Street, promotes as “Free Hot Meals” beginning at 4 p.m. on designated Wednesdays monthly (see accompanying poster). The COC, among its various charitable services, operates a food pantry and a food bank and offers senior dinners.

On its weekly Wednesday schedule, the COC was “handing out 300 meals until about two months ago,” says its Area Director, Doris Inzar, and is now providing 150 meals, continuing “probably as long as the pandemic continues and funding from the Rotary Club continues.” The Rotary, says Inzar, is “an outstanding group of individuals, and I am truly grateful and humble for all they have done for the community.”

Gullotta House, a service organization headquartered in Briarcliff Manor, also received a county grant, which it has directed to the COC to assist its meal programs.

The Community Food Pantry of Tarrytown has provided food to as many as 500 families twice each month, operating downstairs from the parish hall of Christ Episcopal Church, 43 South Broadway. It distributes groceries on the second and third Thursdays of each month to anyone who comes in and can show proof of residency in Tarrytown or Sleepy Hollow. Holidays may alter its distribution days. The pantry also accepts food donations left in the lobby of the Tarrytown Village Hall. Donations from numerous community organizations and the Villages of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow have helped the food pantry maintain its supplies and ongoing distributions.

Major donations to support the Food Pantry’s services have come from the Westchester Community Foundation, which provided a grant of $15,000, and The Kids’ Club, which donated $13,000 this year, plus additional help to offset further needs caused by the pandemic.

Other organizations supporting food distribution to the needy include TaSH, the Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Farmer’s Market, and the Rivertowns Chamber of Commerce, assisting families in Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley and Hastings-on-Hudson. Feeding Westchester, which supplies food services throughout the county, has distributed food at the Salvation Army in Tarrytown as well as the RSHM Life Center and Morse School in Sleepy Hollow. Tarrytown’s Public Schools have provided student food distribution by way of a “grab and go” program in which school and pre-school students have been able to receive meals on school days from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the Sleepy Hollow Middle School.

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