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Thank You!!

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In recognition of National Volunteer Week, we want to take this opportunity to thank all of the women, men and young adults who volunteer in our pantry.

Without you, we would not exist.

A Year In Review

As we begin a new year here at the pantry, we want to take a moment to reflect on the previous year and acknowledge everyone who has helped bring us through it.

New Beginnings

At this time a year ago, our pantry was facing an uncertain future. With eviction from our Gould Ave. location looming, we were unsure as to where we would call home. Through what some would call divine intervention, we were rescued by the generosity of The Vine Wesleyan church. With much hard work and well over $9,000 in donations from the church membership, The Vine renovated their unused four-car garage into our new home. Thank you to the Vine family for providing our clients with a bright, warm and easily accessible facility.

New Partnerships

This past year, we reached out to the other food pantries in our area, renewing old partnerships and establishing new ones. Working together with St. Martha’s and Trinity on such projects as the mail handlers’ food drive and the food express, we were all able to learn, share and cooperate for the benefit of all of our clients. We look forward to growing those relationships in the new year.

New Partners

Over the course of this past year, we reached out to several new business and community partners in an effort to supplement the non-perishable foods we distribute to our clients. From fresh vegetables provided by a local Girl Scout troop and several local church gardens, to day old bakery products from Tops, Panera Bread and Costanzo’s bakery. From freshly prepared ground beef, chicken and pork from the Deli Shop to frozen meats from Target. Without our new partners, we would not have been able to provide a wholesome and nutritious variety of food to our clients.

New Opportunities

Throughout 2015, we took every opportunity we could to share the plight of our clients with the people in our community. Speaking before such organizations as DUCA and the Lancaster / Depew Chamber of Commerce, we were able to reach many people and businesses. In the new year, we look forward to turning that dialog into new opportunities for the pantry.

New Neighbors

With moving into a new building came new neighbors. With new neighbors came wonderful gifts for our clients. Two annual events that our clients are most thankful for are our Thanksgiving basket distribution and our children’s Christmas party. As in years past, we are thankful for the generosity of the Vine Wesleyan church for providing baskets of food for each of our clients so they can cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. This year also provided an opportunity to meet our new neighbors, Restoration Church Twin Village and Centerpointe Community Church, as they joined with the Vine Wesleyan church to provide the children of our clients with a wonderful Christmas party. We look forward to working with our old and new neighbors in the coming year.

New Faces

This past year, we were overwhelmed with the many new faces we have seen helping us inside and outside the pantry. Many new volunteers have signed on and assisted in food distribution, stocking shelves, food pickup and behind the scene support. We have also been fortunate to benefit from the generosity of scores of people outside of the pantry. The annual mail handlers’ and Depew firefighter food drives. The Halloween and Stuff-A-Bus food drives organized by the students and staff of the Depew School District. The many food drives held at local businesses and organizations. The many faces that go into organizing these food drives and the many faces that contribute to these food drives. Each and every item distributed to our clients has been touched by so many generous and hard-working people. We look forward to see these same faces as well as many new ones in the coming year.

New Choices

Last year, we began the process to move our pantry to the Client Choice model of food distribution. We feel that doing this will move us closer to our goal of providing nutritious food to all of our clients while treating them with dignity and respect. This year, client choice will become a reality.

New Challenges

Unfortunately, we anticipate the difficulties experienced by the community that we serve to continue to grow. Each day, we see more new clients come to our pantry in search of food. Single people, families, the elderly. Hunger shows on each of their faces. As we address this growing need, we need to look for new sources of food and funding. We need to build new relationships with our community. We need to enlist new volunteers. These are the new challenges that we will face this new year.

New Year

Looking back, what an exciting and wonderful year we have had at the pantry! We want to thank everyone for the support and generosity you have provided to our clients. Looking forward to the new year, together, we will continue to fight hunger in our community.

Lancaster Depew FCU Holds Food Drive

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Recently, a food drive was held at the Lancaster Depew Federal Credit Union to benefit our pantry. We are so grateful to Susan Mecca, Brian Stuman and Emma Smalley for coordinating the food drive and for the generous donations that were made. Over 500 non-perishable food items were collected which will be enough to supplement over 15 families in the Depew area for a month. Thank you to the Lancaster Depew Federal Credit Union and to everyone who donated.

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Depew High School Leo Club Annual Food Drive

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Thank you to the Depew High School Leo Club for the 500 lbs of food they collected during their annual food drive to benefit our pantry. It is so wonderful to have such community minded young people in our community.

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Tri-Community Selected to Participate in Baby Needs Program

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The Tri-Community Food Pantry has been selected to participate in the Baby Needs Program administered by the Food Bank of Western New York. This program assists families facing emergencies and/or waiting for W.I.C. benefits in accessing essential baby care items.

There are fewer than 50 agencies that benefit from this program. Tri-Community has been chosen to participate because of its location and the number of infants that it serves. Due to the limited number of participating agencies, clients from outside our normal service area may be referred to our pantry for baby items.

As a Baby Needs Program participant, we are able to order through the Food Bank of Western New York from a limited supply of infant products such as fomula and diapers at no cost to our agency. Since this program is grant funded, there will be a fluctuation in the availability of these items. Because baby products are seldom donated, the Food Bank greatly appreciates assistance with this program. For more information about the program please contact Stephanie Lawson, [email protected].

We are now registered at AmpleHarvest.org

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There are millions of people across the country that rely on local food pantries to supplement their food needs. Your next door neighbor may be going to a food pantry and you don’t even know it. The food that we distribute at our pantry comes from several sources. Our main source is from the Food Bank of Western New York. We also receive food directly from food drives, from merchants and from people just walking in the door with a bag of food they want to donate. However, nearly all of the food we receive is packaged, canned and non-perishable. We don’t have the facilities to handle fresh food. The primary goal at our pantry is to treat our clients with respect and dignity. How can we do that when you see a client week after week and you can only give them a bag of canned goods when you know they deserve fresh, healthy food just like those of us who can afford to go to a store and buy it?

Now we can provide that fresh food. Now YOU can provide that fresh food.

Our pantry has registered with a program called AmpleHarvest.org It is a program that connects backyard gardeners with local food pantries. Once this connection is made, a gardener can arrange with the pantry a time and day that is best for both to drop off just harvested food so it can quickly be distributed without the need for special handling at the pantry.

Please take a moment to view this video. If you have a backyard food garden, please consider registering and connecting with a pantry close to you so you can donate your excess harvest. If you don’t have a garden, please share this program with someone who does.

New eligibility guidelines

Eligibility guidelines 2015-16

We have received new income eligibility guidelines from the food bank. Please refer to the new guidelines going forward.

Click here to view the new guidelines.

Girl Scout Visit

From: Como Lake Girl Scouts
Sent: Fri, May 22, 2015 8:05 am
Subject: Fwd: To Como Lake Leaders

Hello Leaders. This may be best suited for those troops that are Juniors and up but the Tri-Community Food Pantry was flexible so they could possibly meet the needs of younger troops. If it interests you it is worth investigating.

Yesterday my Cadette Troop #31345 visited the TRi-Community Food Pantry 722 Terrace Blvd., Depew, NY

The girls learned the following:

  1. Who is eligible to receive food from a food pantry.
  2. Sources of food for the pantry.
  3. How to load bags for clients
  4. Life lessons about dignity

The 2 gentleman running the pantry, Ron and Paul, are passionate about eliminating hunger and would love to spread the word about their Food Pantry. There are also opportunities for volunteer hours if you are not interested in it for your troop, perhaps your child needs volunteer hours.

Contact:

Paul Burdick Food Pantry: 289-1370 Cell 949-0498

Nicole Fontana

Troop 31345

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Tri-Community Food Pantry moves to new home

By Ellie Coatar, News 4 Producer Published: January 11, 2015, 6:53

The Tri-Community Food Pantry is continuing its service to Western New York in a new location. It serves more than 500 people in Depew, Lancaster and Cheektowaga. The pantry unveiled its new home to the public on Sunday afternoon.

This summer, the Village of Depew decided to sell the food pantry’s old building. Workers and volunteers were worried they would have to close it down.

But, the Vine Wesleyan Church at 425 Penora St. remodeled part of its building so the food pantry could move in. The Tri-Community Food Pantry is now open on

Tuesdays from noon – 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. – noon.

Prospective clients have to bring identification of everyone in their household, proof of income and address. The pantry serves people living in the 14043 zip code east of Transit Road and south of Broadway.

If you would like to donate to the pantry, food may be dropped off during open hours. Monetary donations may dropped off at the pantry or sent to The Tri-Community Food Pantry, P.O. Box 483, Depew, NY.

The pantry also accepts in-season clean clothes, personal toiletry items, toys, books and small household items.

For more information on the Tri-Community Food Pantry’s services, contact Tri-Community at 716-289-1370 or email: [email protected]