Affiliated with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, the Cambridge Food Pantry and Christian Outreach Center offers food from the four major food groups as well as paper supplies to those in need.
Each week, approximately 30 volunteers pick up groceries, stock shelves and serve anywhere from 120 to 150 families in the Cambridge Central School District.
No one who visits the pantry will ever leave hungry. Even if an individual or family is not from within the pantry’s distribution area, staff will provide food and assistance in accessing a food pantry in their home area if possible.
In the face of Covid-19, the food pantry has made a few changes in the way it distributes goods to recipients. These days, cars pull into the driveway, a tally is made of family members and staff fill food boxes and load them into the trunks of recipients’ cars.
In addition to providing food through the pantry, the organization’s backpack program for students in kindergarten through 12th grade provides breakfast and lunch for weekends and during vacations when needy students are not receiving breakfast or lunch at school. Cambridge Central School distributes the backpacks that are filled with goods provided by the food pantry to students on Friday afternoons.
The food pantry’s weekly Friday community lunch program and Code Blue affiliation are not currently in operation.
Since 2015, the Code Blue site had provided a warm shelter for those who were homeless or had inadequate heating during the winter’s coldest nights.
Pantry hours are Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Fridays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Check the food pantry’s Facebook page at facebook.com/CambridgeNYLoavesandfishes for updates on food pantry hours.
For more information on volunteering or to make a pick-up referral, leave a message for Vicki Bartholomew at 518-677-7152 or visit the organization’s Facebook page.
Cambridge Food Pantry and Christian Outreach Center is located at 59 S. Park St. in Cambridge.
Author: NYVT Media
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