In the face of the pandemic with millions of Americans still out of work, the number of people facing hunger issues during the Covid-19 pandemic continues to grow.

According to Feeding America that provides food services to forty-six million Americans four out of ten people are facing hunger. The Feeding America network of food banks estimates that eighteen million American children faced food and nutritional challenges during this year.

Food insecure households are not necessarily out of food all the time and may reflect a household's need to make a trade-off between important basic expenses such as housing, medical bills and transportation needs and being able to buy adequate food.

Things are very tough for many people right now and no one wants to talk about needing food. Although the government supports food programs, many times it comes down to communities reaching out and having local food programs and making sure those in need of food assistance get it.

That is certainly the case in Highland. The Barryville Farmers Market underwrites a prepared meals program called A Single Bite from the Foster Supply Hospitality, a Sullivan County based company which using locally sourced fresh foods, has prepared and delivered 2,600 meals per week for families across Sullivan County including the St. Anthony Food Pantry.

St. Anthony's Church in Yulan has had a food pantry for over a decade. According to Margie Granese, the current Pantry Coordinator who has volunteered in the position for the past nine years, during the months of the pandemic the numbers of families getting food services has remained fairly stable at sixteen families.

“I have been doing the Pantry for so many years I know my pantry family's needs and try and provide the most nutritious foods possible especially for our seniors to keep everyone healthy,” Margie told me. As part of the national effort to support community food services, St Anthony gets fresh produce, dairy products, and other food from Sullivan County. Thanks to a very generous and ongoing personal donation by Rob Doherty the Chair of the Sullivan County Legislature, the Pantry gets fresh eggs from Brey's Egg Company. Rob said he is “happy to participate and donate eggs and support the pantry and is proud of the critical work they do for the community.”

It is unknown at this time how long the County food support will continue, but when it stops Margie and her six Pantry volunteers will have their usual dry good groceries to give out. During the pandemic, the St. Anthony's Pantry operates every Thursday out of the Parish Center. The volunteers arrive at 9:30 and the truck with the County food arrives at 10:00. After unloading, bagging the produce, the boxes are loaded up and matched with the Single Bite meals and are ready for the families to pick up.

Now preparations are underway for the Pantry's Thanksgiving meal distributions. “Usually at Thanksgiving and Christmas we have more families come to the Pantry”, Margie told me. Recently I spent an afternoon with her as she scoured local food markets for sales on items she will need for the upcoming holidays.

The Pantry is fortunate that we have several local people who generously donate turkeys but there is still everything else that goes with it because every family gets a complete holiday dinner, they can enjoy she said. When pressed really hard Margie admits to spending about thirty hours a month managing the Pantry.

Margie mentioned that “certainly without the help and support of Father Joselin the Pantry would not be run as smoothly as it does.” If you would like to make a donation to the Pantry for the holiday meals, make a check out to St Anthony of Padua Church at 25 Beaverbrook Road, Yulan, NY 12792 and in the memo write in the “Food Pantry”.

For all other Pantry questions you can call Margie at (845) 557-0583.