Food pantry works hard to meet significant needs

Roberta Horowitz manages volunteers at the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry. (Herb Foster Photo)

By HERB FOSTER

The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry distributes enough food to feed an average of 700 families in need, or 2,000 people, every Tuesday and Wednesday. 

In business for 33 years, it provides service to 21 northern Westchester communities, and in 2024, fed over 118,282 people. How do they do it?  With the support of many hardworking volunteers.           

“We are so grateful to all of the volunteers who give their time,” said Trina Ward Fontaine, executive director. “Whether it’s once a week or once in a while, they are a lifeline for our organization given that we are the largest weekly choice pantry in northern Westchester. We rely on hundreds of volunteers every year who give about 12,000 hours of their time and make the pantry a warm and welcoming environment of support. We couldn’t do it without you.”

Indeed, the number of volunteers needed is massive. The pantry does three regular food distributions: Tuesday afternoons, Wednesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons.

Fourteen people and two registrars are needed for each shift. Then, every other Thursday morning, another group does 60 to 65 home deliveries, taking food to the housebound. These bags are initially packed the previous Friday morning by a separate crew of volunteers, then filled with perishables, including eggs, frozen protein and produce before the drivers leave. On Friday, most of the food deliveries come in and people are needed to unload the trucks and stock the shelves.

Not all food gets delivered by trucks. Volunteers do “food rescue” from a number of places, including the Mount Kisco Bagel Shop, Trader Joe’s, Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace, Stop & Shop, and from three different DeCicco stores (through County Harvest), among others. Volunteers pick up milk from the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, and produce is picked up from local farms. Some local gardeners bring their vegetables to the pantry.

There is a process for the distribution. Families have to register first, during hours when the pantry is open, providing residence data and information on the family size. Then, when they go to the check-in window, they are given a colored card, based on family size. When they go through the pantry, the volunteers at each station assist the guests who work their way from station to station. They start with the fresh produce and fruit, then proceed through the multiple choices of breads, cereals and canned goods, to eggs and frozen meats.

Roberta Horowitz, director of programs and volunteers, notes that the pantry has 175 people who actively sign up, week after week, plus a backup of others ready to help. Using an app called Civic Champs, people can sign up for a specific job and time. To supplement this there are churches, synagogues and corporate groups who participate. The volunteers come from a variety of places.

Volunteers are critical

Vitalah Simon of Armonk joined three months ago.

“I really wanted to give service to the people in our community who are getting their rights and needs stripped away right and left,” she said. “And I thought, well, what can I do? Well, the pantry is something I can do. It brings some joy to their lives.” 

Three Fox Lane students — Lisa Arriaga, Valerie Cruz and Sherlyn Berganza — were handling the cereal aisle recently as part of their community service and enjoying it immensely.

Anjali Talsania started volunteering during the pandemic, and continues to volunteer on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, distributing milk. 

“The way the pantry is organized is just fabulous,” she said. “They’re so good at trying to figure out what the customers want and provide it for them, like including dairy free milk.”

Tori and Callan Keeley, a mother-and-daughter team from Katonah, volunteer together. They’re members of the National Charity League (a mother-daughter charity organization). They worked at multiple charities but have settled at the pantry, saying they like it the best.

Kathryn Ward has been a volunteer for five years, coming originally from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church in Mount Kisco. She gets to know the clients personally. She enjoys her time working at the pantry.

“Good people to work with and good people to serve,” she said.

The pantry also runs a special program called Schools Out Supplement (SOS), which gives lunch items to families with school-aged children for the 10 weeks the kids are out of school. The SOS bags also get packed every Friday throughout the summer.

Robert Schick of White Plains came initially through a volunteer program that the Capitol Theatre ran during the pandemic called Cap Cares. He comes to the Pantry each Tuesday faithfully and oversees the egg distribution.

There is no question the volunteers are critical for the pantry to achieve its mission, “Nourishing our Neighbors in Need,” or its vision statement, “We envision a northern Westchester community where everyone has enough nutritious food and is empowered to thrive.”

For more information, visit mountkiscofoodpantry.org/. The volunteer email is volunteer@mountkiscofoodpantry.org.