Though the groundhog saw his shadow, we are still hoping for an early spring!
By the Numbers:
This year, our food pantry:
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Households Served: 501
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Individuals Served: 1,344
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Meals Provided: 12,096
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Pounds of Food Received: 8,133
Operational Updates:
We have entered into Cellino Plumbing’s truck wrap contest! If we win, we will be branded onto one of their trucks and receive monthly donations throughout the year. You can vote once per day. Please vote for our pantry here: https://cellinoplumbing.com/truck-wrap-2026/#/gallery/525639612
We are starting to plan for our Community Garden when Spring finally comes around! We are thinking about seeds and how we can make our garden more sustainable. We are considering rain barrels and composting this year. If you are a gardener or have an interest in learning, please let us know! We would love to have more garden volunteers.
We had a couple snow days in January due to the wintry weather. When we close, we email our clients with appointments, post on our website, Facebook, Channel 4 WIVB, and Channel 2 WGRZ closing central. Please check any one of these before driving to the pantry when there's bad weather. Thank you for your understanding as we strive to keep our volunteers and our clients safe!
Donations & Giving:
This month we are sending a BIG THANK YOU to Lydia at Little Black Heart Coffee! We appreciate your contribution to our pantry! We also received various food and supplies donations from the church members of St. Stephens-Bethlehem/Kenilworth UCC. Thank you all for your generosity!
If you'd like to spread the word about our pantry, we have a donation box with brochures available outside our entrance. You can also share our Facebook or website links down below. Your gifts—big or small—help us feed our neighbors year-round.
Thank you to all our individual donors this month: Kim Wilson, Nicholas Tobiczyk, Shawn Milligan, Jacob Rutowski, Jennifer Parrack, Lydia Gray, Amanda Miller, Andrea Rybczynski, Carlos Zuniga, Christopher Rimes, Christy Capodagli, Deborah Kuczkowski, Gary Dunn, Gina Schwartz, Karen Jebens, Lisa Ceglia, Marc Roizman, Mary Caroline Manuel, Nichole McMurray, Nicole Affolter, Olivia Graves-Witherell, Paul Milewski, Ravindra Jain, Ritesh Jain, Robert Papelian, Sarah Geyer, Tiffany Mcneil, Tiffany Safford, and Tommy Turner.
Grants:
We had some wonderful successes to close out 2025. However, the grind doesn’t stop - now we are gearing up for the 2026 grants! We have applied to Western NY Foundation, East Hill Foundation, and National Grid so far this year. If you know of any opportunities we can apply for, please let us know!
Looking Ahead:
Due to the recent success of our grants, we will be providing more food in our pantry in the upcoming months to increase choice and availability. We are also considering teaching some classes this summer, such as: how to grow salads in a patio pot, how to save seeds, and companion planting: how to utilize your space. If these or similar subjects are of interest to you or people you know, please let us know! We are looking to gauge interest and get feedback on what classes could be useful to our community!
Our President will once again be streaming live to fundraise for our pantry! Join us for a variety of games & fun activities on March 7-8th.
Thank you for helping us bring hope and joy to every table. Together, we make our community stronger.
