The Regional Food Bank represents 23 counties from the Hudson Valley to the Canadian border. Officials from the Food Bank were in Plattsburgh today to announce a Thanksgiving food distribution initiative in the North Country.
The Regional Food Bank is working with a network of partners and donors on a one-day Thanksgiving food distribution at two locations in the North Country: the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing on the former campus of Clinton Community College and at the JCEO offices in Malone. Regional Food Bank CEO Tom Nardacci said over the past year they have been strategizing how to get more food to people as demand increases.
“The Regional Food Bank is announcing the largest single Thanksgiving distribution in the state of New York. And what that means is in our 23 county service area we’re going to be providing on the Saturday before Thanksgiving enough food to distribute 350,000 meals to serve 75,000 people.”
Adirondack Food System Network Director Josh Stephani said they partner with 25 agencies across 12 counties.
“This is such a great opportunity to bring more awareness of hunger and food insecurity in our communities with percentages around 15 percent in Franklin County but part of our region up to 25 percent. And so these programs like this Thanksgiving will help feed our communities.”
The Thanksgiving meal distribution will be in addition to the Food Bank’s normal operations, according to Chief Operations Officer Nick Pisani.
“Every day we move 225,000 pounds of food, six tractor trailers of food. This day, in one singular day, over 420,000 pounds of food which is going to be over 20 full tractor trailers of food.”
Nardacci explained how people can get a Thanksgiving meal.
“There’s no pre-signups. It’s a drive-through. We’ll have volunteers that will put together bags of groceries. It will include a turkey as well as a variety of Thanksgiving items and some other products. We’re trying to put enough food in a bag that it’ll last someone three to five days,” Nardacci said. “It’s a one-day event: Saturday November 22nd. The distribution will start at 10 a.m. and it’s really first-come first-served. We won’t have any re-ups available because we have a limited amount of food.”
Nardacci also put out a call for volunteers and donors to help with the one-day effort.
“Take a minute and just think about your own Thanksgivings. Think about your own family traditions. Now, take that all away and fill it with nothing. And that’s the harsh reality. The harsh reality is that there are thousands of people in this area that will have nothing for Thanksgiving and we’re going to do our best to make sure we get as much food as we can to people in need.”
During a similar effort last year in the Capital Region, most of the food was distributed in the first two hours.
