To the Editor:

I would like to respectfully disagree with the article in the October 6th issue of North Country This Week stating the need for a county wide food pantry in St. Lawrence County. As someone who coordinates two food distribution programs in St. Lawrence County (Norfolk Raymondville Food Pantry and Community Lunch Program For Kids), I can assure you this would be a huge mistake.

St. Lawrence County is the largest county in New York State, size wise. To ask people to travel outside of their own towns to access food would be especially challenging for low income families. Many families don’t have transportation and struggle to even get to their local food pantry. (The Community Lunch Program For Kids recently utilized a grant from NNYCF to purchase grocery carts which allows families who live in the village who have no transportation, to get food at the food pantry and have a way to get it home.) And if it is challenging now, imagine how it would be if the pantry is moved miles from their home!

And for those who do have transportation, this proposal would mean spending more of their “food dollars” on gas to get to and from a county wide food pantry. These people are having a hard enough time as it is making ends meet!

I’m not sure where the people proposing a county food pantry got their information, but it is absolutely not true that food pantry workers have to travel to Syracuse to pick up food for their pantry. The Food Bank of Central New York has huge trucks coming into St. Lawrence County at least twice a month. The Food Bank of Central NY serves over 300 food pantries, and they are able to provide nutritious food to pantries at a very low cost. They also offer USDA foods for free, as well as foods donated through grocery rescue. They do not charge for this delivery.

Not only does the Food Bank of CNY provide food at a low cost, they also offer local food pantries grants for operating expenses, equipment, as well as annual grants to purchase food.

Another consideration of the proposed plan would be who is going to run this county wide food pantry? Our food distribution programs require a small army of volunteers to unload trucks, stock shelves, distribute food on distribution day, as well as provide emergency food to people in need 7 days a week, and deliver food to local seniors (who either lack transportation or are physically unable to get to the local food pantry.) once a month. If you have just one county food pantry, that would mean that all your volunteers would come from that specific location, or volunteers would have to drive in from other parts of the county. Have I mentioned the price of gas in St. Lawrence County?

I sincerely hope that more research will be done into this proposal before even considering implementing it. This will have disastrous effects for the individuals, families and senior citizens who rely on their local food pantry for food each month.

In conclusion, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!”

Wendy Chambers
Norfolk Raymondville Food Pantry
Community Lunch Program for Kids