HELPING WITH A NEED
Ballston Spa National Bank hosts its 11th drive-thru food pantry
COHOES, N.Y. » Ballston Spa National Bank (BSNB) hosted its eleventh monthly drive-thru food pantry on Tuesday morning, outside the Cohoes Visitors Center. The contactless, socially-distanced event distributed 18,000 pounds of food to those in need.
The food pantry started at 10 a.m., with the food stacked up on twelve palettes lining the alley down the front of the Cohoes Welcome Center. Traffic was lined up all the way to 787, and by 10:30 the food was all but gone.
“It shows there’s definitely a need,” said Melissa Mewhorter, the head of BSNB’s community support team.
This was BSNB’s second food pantry in Cohoes. The bank has also distributed food at locations in Ballston Spa, Milton, Wilton, and Voorheesville.
“We’ve tried to do one a month,” Mewhorter explained. “Next month we’ll be back in Ballston Spa, at the bank headquarters.”
Each food pantry is run about 30 volunteers. The
food is provided by the Regional Food Bank. So far, over 180,000 pounds of food have been distributed since last May when the food drives began, benefiting over 9,000 people.
BSNB just recently ended a matching donation campaign with the Regional Food Bank, pledging to match up to $5,000 in donations. Similar match
ing campaigns have raised over $10,000 in community donations.
At the end of the food drive, what little food was leftover was given back to the Food Bank.
Mewhorter says that events like this are important to her.
“We’ve been very fortunate through this whole pandemic,” she said of BSNB. “We’ve been able to work the whole time. Because we’ve been so fortunate, I feel like we can give back to the community. It’s just a couple of hours out of our day, and it’s so important.”
“It’s always great to see,” added Heather O’Shea, BSNB’s retail banking administrator and security officer. O’Shea has been with BSNB for ten years and has been able to attend about 75% of the food pantry events.
“People are always so thankful,” O’Shea commented. “The need hasn’t diminished. We’ve run out of food every time, regardless of where we are. It’s sad that we run out of food, but it’s good that we’re able to get the food to so many people.”
Mewhorter says that BSNB plans to continue hosting monthly food pantries for the foreseeable future.
“We’ve committed to continuing them through June, and then we’ll see how the need is after that,” she stated.
The monthly food pantries are one way that BSNB stays connected to its communities.
“We’re always looking out for our neighbors,” said O’Shea. “We care about the communities we service.”