Volunteers at the LeRoy Rotary Pop-Up Pantry distributed boxes of food to about 240 families this past Wednesday at the Our Lady of Mercy parking lot at 44 Lake Street.
On March 1st, extra SNAP benefits that were tacked on during the pandemic ended. This means that families will have less money to spend on groceries each month. Most families will lose about $80.
“I think people are worried about how they are going to make ends meet when it comes to groceries and having nutritious food. At today’s Pop Up Pantry there were a lot of new faces,” says Christine Gephart, President of LeRoy Rotary Community Kitchen.
Gephart started the LeRoy Rotary Community Kitchen about 6 years ago.
“We are partnered with Foodlink who delivers about 12 pallets of food once per month. Then from there volunteers go through and fill boxes with the delivered food about an hour before the Pop-Up Pantry starts.”
The Pop-Up Pantry registration is from 1:30pm-2:30pm with food distribution from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. There was also a hot meal offered for pick up inside the former Holy Family School from 4:30pm-5:45pm.
The drive thru free food distribution serves about 15 different towns.
“Genesee County is one of the most underserved counties in the area. Anyone who has an issue with obtaining healthy food can come through. They can pick up for neighbors as well. They just have to register.”
This past week Foodlink provided, cabbage, potatoes, onions, chicken nuggets, apples, pears cream, flour and even a few cakes.
“We have no idea what we are getting until 1:30pm that day. Foodlink is an amazing agency, they rescue food. We get a ton of donations from Wegmans, Cosco, Walmart and Target. Anything that doesn’t sell or is imperfect will get sent to Foodlink. foodlinkny.org
LeRoy Rotary Community Kitchen also has partnership with Save A Lot in LeRoy.
“They just gave us a generous gift of $2,000. We are able to serve a nutritious homemade meal with all the food groups for less than $1.50 a person.”
At the twice a month hot meal, Gephart says they serve about 125 people.
Hot nutritious meals are served twice per month. The next hot meal is March 14th. The next Pop-Up Pantry food distribution is March 28th and is every 4th Tuesday of the month. (except for June, the date is June 14th)
Follow the LeRoy Rotary Community Kitchen on Facebook for updates. Link below.
(20+) LeRoy Rotary Community Kitchen | Facebook
Anyone with questions or if you would like to volunteer can email: leroyrotarycommunitykitchen@gmail.com
