Emergency Food Collaborative honored for serving community during pandemic
» The Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative was recently honored in recognition of one year of service to the community.
Mayor Steve Noble recognized Thursday, March 18, as “Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative Day” during a small ceremony, according to a press release from his office. The Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative is made up of several organizations, grassroots organizers, city staff and individual volunteers who came together to remove barriers to food access to ensure that no member of the community went hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past year, the collaborative has provided food deliveries from People’s Place, Catholic Charities, and the Everette Hodge Community Center to support 743 households made up of 1,368 adults and 709 children, the release said.
“I want to whole-heartedly thank the KEFC for their unwavering support of our community during an unbelievably hard time,” Noble said in a statement. “I want to thank all of the volunteers who put themselves in harm’s way to deliver meals and groceries in our community’s greatest time of need. There is no greater act as a neighbor and I commend the KEFC and thank them for one year of dedicated service.”
The collaborative is primarily volunteer-run, with many community-based organizations contributing staff time to the effort, the release said. More than 500 unique volunteers have helped manage multiple distribution sites, sort and pack food, schedule deliveries, handle a food-request hotline and conduct outreach calls, according to the release. They have also helped schedule volunteers, deliver meals and groceries, source ingredients for and provide school recess meal boxes for families, and mobilize rapid meal production and distribution, the release added. That equates to 17,393.25 volunteer hours worked since the collaborative’s launch in 2020 through Feb. 28, totaling $473,090 in unpaid work.
Participating organizations and food providers include A.J. WilliamsMyers African Roots Center; Catholic Charities; city of Kingston; Community Action; Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Ulster County; Exago; Family of Woodstock; Hudson Valley Farm Hub; Hudson Valley Seed; Kingston Food Coop; People’s Place; Radio Kingston; RiseUp Kingston; The Salvation ArmyKingston; UlsterCorps; Ulster County; Ulster County Department of Health and Mental Health and Kingston YMCA Farm Project.
Other participating organizations and food providers include YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County; Applestone; Bread Alone; Everette Hodge Community Center; Grassroots Farm; Hickory BBQ Smokehouse; Hudson Harvest; Hudson Valley Fresh Dairy; JJF Farm; Kingston Bread + Bar; Kingston City School District; Marisa McClinton; Miglioreli’s; Mother Earth’s Storehouse; PAKT To Go; Restaurant Kinsley; Ronnybrook Dairy; Savona’s; Sfogolini; The Anchor; The Farm Bridge; The Lo Farm; Tilda’s Kitchen & Market; Veritas; and Village Coffee & Goods.
Anyone in the city of Kingston who is in need of food is encouraged to call the Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative hotline at (888) 316-0879 or visit www.kingstonemergencyfood.com.