Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry

Good Will, Volunteerism and Community Donations at the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry

April 2, 2021 by Rich Monetti

Save the Date for a May 1 ‘NO SHOW GALA’ Celebrating 30 Years

The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry has been assisting families since 1991, and can probably count thousands of volunteers and donors to their credit. However, the nonprofit only began holding an annual fundraiser three years ago. That said, the event isn’t just about bringing in money. “It’s an opportunity to engage with some of our supporters and have a touch point with them,” said President Kelley Housman.

Unfortunately, Covid prevented the spring gathering last year and now this year. So not wanting to completely let the annual connection go, the pantry is going virtual to celebrate their 30th anniversary and holding a “No Show Gala” on May 1. “I’m going to appreciate a night in and think about the good work that the Mt Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry does,” posed Housman. “So instead of buying a ticket, I’m going to make a donation.”

Nonetheless, the story began when the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco and Temple Shaaray Tefila saw a specific need in the community. “People would come out of the hospital,” said Housman, “and sometimes they would need assistance.” The helping nudge became a push, and the pantry was soon serving eight families. Of course, the story is often the same. “Imagine you’re making choices between feeding your family well or feeding them minimally so you can pay your rent,” said Housman. A year later, nine area congregations joined in and 40 families were on the menu. As a result, the business soon added fundraising, and the nonprofit began purchasing subsidized staples from Feeding Westchester. Of course, the bumps in America’s road always sends the pantry’s efforts on the incline. For instance, the 2008 financial crises saw a deep increase in demand. But the pantry always perseveres at the United Methodist Church of Mt. Kisco, and the (almost) all volunteer nonprofit served healthy food to 68,000 people last year.

Food insecurity doesn’t care about the numbers, though. “We just never know how quickly circumstances can change,” Housman said, and first time seeking help can have people biting down hard.

The fear of being judged is the primary mouthful. ‘Nancy’ of Mt Kisco can attest from her initial visit in 2012. A student trying to feed her family, she said, “I felt kind of embarrassed.”

Imagine you’re making choices between feeding your family well or feeding them minimally so you can pay your rent.

On the other hand, any apprehension really has no recourse but to abate. “The volunteers don’t judge and are always there to help,” said the medical assistant.

Housman encourages struggling families to take the first step, but the sentiment doesn’t just come by way of common courtesy. “We create a shopping experience for our clients, where they come in and make selections based on their personal preferences and dietary needs,” she said. “It’s a much better interaction than just handing over a bag of prepackaged food.”

Unfortunately, Covid protocols have forced the process into a less personal experience. Initially clients drove by for pickups, but downtown Mt Kisco wasn’t conducive. So the pantry got creative. Aside from upping home delivery service, families scan in and more rooms at the church are utilized so foot traffic doesn’t overlap. They have also created ‘“Covid pods” so volunteering families stay in the same distribution rooms.

The pantry can’t contain the goodwill, though, and it includes a long roster of local businesses, community organizations, grocery stores and individuals. As the demand has skyrocketed with Covid, Housman is forever grateful for all those who have embraced the mission.

But nothing is better than when the mission embraces the people and comes full circle. “We have a number of clients who have volunteered and even become board members,” Housman beamed.

Area Youth & Creative Volunteers

“We have area youth too who have come up with incredibly creative fundraising strategies.” One group writes poems for donations, another local kid donates proceeds from his own ice cream product and scouting groups have long been doing their share. But receiving also can require emotional support, and two local girls have been on top of it since last summer. They anonymously drop off handmade cards and include notes of hope and inspiration.

Right into the prepackaged bags, the feeling is mutual for clients–and Nancy doesn’t hesitate to express it: “Thank you for all your help, we are blessed.”

For more info on the May 1 No Show Gala, visit www.mountkiscofoodpantry.org

Getting to Know the Junior League of Northern Westchester

April 18, 2019 by Amy Kelley

Helping the Local Community for 65 Years

This year marks the 65th anniversary of that venerable, but hardly hidebound, local institution: the Junior League of Northern Westchester (JLNW).

Way back in 1971, the organization helped establish the Mount Kisco Child Care Center. In the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, the group’s focus was on domestic violence and in the early 2000’s, hunger and childhood obesity; the JLNW partnered for a time with the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry too. Now, there’s a focus on human trafficking and the safety of girls and women, as well as raising children in a digital age – and the group also runs an annual Holiday Sharing Drive.

“The Junior League is a community service organization that looks to identify critical needs in our community and develops unique ways to find solutions,” Clara Sharp, president elect of the Junior League of Northern Westchester, said.

To combat human trafficking–specifically the commercial sexual exploitation of children–the league has had a connection for the past several years with The Gateways Program, which is part of the JCCA Cottage Schools in Pleasantville.

Last month the group presented a well-attended program called Join the Conversation: Protecting Children in a Hyper Digital Age at the Bedford Playhouse. Liz Repking, the founder of Cyber Safety Consulting spoke. Topics discussed included sexting, gaming safety, restrictions and settings, and popular apps to use safely.

The Holiday Sharing Drive, started in 1980, is a favorite initiative of Sharp’s. “It’s really, truly a heart-warming experience,” she said. About ten social service agencies help

the league by identifying around 200 families who could use help at holiday time. Then, all members of each family including the adults write a list of what they need and/or desire to receive. “We match these families with people in the community,” Sharp said. Then, the gifts are purchased, readied and are packaged in bins and gathered in the gym of the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester for distribution.

Armonk resident Trina Fontaine is also enthusiastic about the Holiday Sharing Drive. “The thing that got me hooked in the beginning was that (the junior league) had a number of initiatives going with other non-profits,” she said, adding that her church now adopts four families during the drive. But the trafficking of children for commercial sexual exploitation is the cause that’s “near and dear” to her heart, she said. “It really disgusts me and it shouldn’t happen here” in Westchester.

These ideas, Sharp said, come from both members and groups with which the Junior League has formed partnerships, like Northern Westchester Hospital. “It’s a two-pronged approach,” she said. “It’s not so much a formal process, but it’s something that evolves over time.”

Often, after they take off, Junior League projects wind up in the hands of others.

“We have a strong history of introducing programming that can be released back into the community,” Sharp said. “After a certain number of years, it becomes self-sustaining and that’s truly what we consider a success story.” For example, Hope’s Door, formerly known as the Northern Westchester Shelter, was started by the Junior League and is now completely independent.

“To be in the junior league is to be in a group of women who share your desire to make a difference in your community,” Sharp said. A popular misconception is that the junior league is a group of women who don’t work outside the home. Sharp works full-time as a fundraiser for a medical school, and said she is by no means the only member who has a career. “It’s women of all demographics.”

Emily Hunt, president of the JLNW, stated, “As a mother of daughters, I am especially proud of all the work we have done and continue to do to advance women and girls in our community, to ensure their safety and security and provide them, as adults, an outlet to give back to the community.”

Sharp joined in 2013, when she moved to Chappaqua, at the suggestion of her mother-in-law, a longtime member and past president herself. She said it was “a nice way to meet like-minded women,” Sharp said.

Joining the Junior League is easy, Sharp said: All you have to do is contact the group and say you want to join. In the past, joining was a more formal process and each new member needed a sponsor.

While the group prefers to admit new members twice a year so the women coming in have a greater chance to get to know other new members, really, Sharp said, new members can join any time. “As the times have changed, so have our policies and procedures,” Sharp said. “If you want to make a difference, we want you to join.”

Women from Chappaqua, Armonk, Pleasantville, Bedford, Mount Kisco, Pound Ridge, Briarcliff and more are members, meeting once a month, every third Tuesday, in order to move forward on projects and initiatives to improve the community.

Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry Celebrates 25th Anniversary!

May 24, 2016 by Inside Press

Since 1991, the non-profit food pantry has been dedicated to creating a healthier and stronger community.

Article and Photos By Justin Ellick

MOUNT KISCO, NY—On what was a gloomy, lazy Sunday for most members of the greater Mount Kisco community, there was a burst of cheer and positive energy coming from the back lawn of The United Methodist Church on the corner of Smith Avenue and Main Street. It was here where the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry celebrated its 25th Anniversary.

Founded in 1991, the Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry has acted as a reliable service for anyone who’s having trouble putting food on the table for themselves or their loved ones. The only pantry in the area that offers regular, weekly food distributions, Mount Kisco Interfaith is a nonprofit organization made up of extremely dedicated volunteers, some of whom are even former clients of the pantry themselves.

The gathering on Sunday wasn’t only celebrating 25 years of the pantry, but also how much and how rapidly the organization has grown in such a short period of time. The difference the food pantry has been able to make in the greater Mount Kisco area over the years is something every volunteer dreamed of, but never truly believed to be all that realistic.

“We wanted what’s here, but we never thought it would go on for this long or make such a big difference throughout the community”, said founder and board member Karen Ostro. “We started with just four families at Moore Avenue and it grew to many hundreds of families now.”

While the pantry is flourishing today, providing food for upwards of 200 families a week, its goal is to severely decrease the number of hungry families throughout the area, ultimately minimalizing the need for such an organization.

“It’s sad that there’s such a need”, continued Ostro. “But at least there’s a response to that need. That’s what we’re here for.”

The pantry encourages clients to only come when they need to, acting as a safety net for anyone who doesn’t have enough nutritious food for themselves or for their family at the moment. Ideally, a client spends about a month or so using the food pantry and its services, before slowly getting back on their feet and eventually being able to afford their own groceries again. Sometimes, the interfaith food pantry even sees former clients come back as volunteers, in an effort to give back to the organization that once helped them so dramatically.

“We had a family this past year that came to the pantry every week for about six or seven weeks”, said Operations Director Roberta Horowitz. “After a few weeks without seeing them, they came back with a donation and have been donating regularly ever since. It’s really wonderful to see the entire process come full circle like that.”

Twenty-five years ago, The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry opened its first location in an abandoned one-room schoolhouse. Today, the Pantry has grown immensely both in the services it offers and the number of people it feeds. Its goal from the get-go has been to create a stronger, healthier community, and it has done just that.

Greeley grad Justin Ellick, a sophomore Media and Communications Major at Ursinus College in Philadelphia, is an intern for Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk Magazines this summer.