As the Weather Turns, the Hudson Valley Refuses to Stop Fighting Food Insecurity
It’s no secret that Mother Nature is her harshest during the Winter months in the Northeast. By late September, leaves fall and plants cease the otherwise regular, fruitful growth that they would experience throughout the Spring and Summer. In an area as food secure as the Hudson Valley, where are the hungry to turn when the various outdoor initiatives cease operations due to the unkind weather?
“For every donation, we are deeply and profoundly grateful,” director of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Paul A. Stermer, wrote in the Poughkeepsie Journal in November of 2017. “However, we often remind people that food insecurity in our region is not limited to a particular time of year. There is no season — or off-season — for hunger.”
Stermer, who has been the Food Bank’s director since September of 2017, helms an organization that is one of many — and still one of too few — currently combatting hunger in the Hudson Valley. According to Stermer, about 11-percent of those within the area the bank serves are food insecure. They collect donations of food from all over the area, and distribute the food throughout a six-county radius, one that includes Dutchess, Orange, Putnam Rockland, Sullivan, and Ulster counties. That 11-percent, as Stermer wrote, is “more than 100,000 people — roughly the same as the entire population of Hartford, Connecticut.”
Certain organizations throughout the area have taken the necessary steps in order to fully eradicate the issue as it stands. Though it is difficult for some to remain functional year-round, especially when a majority of their operations take place outdoors. The Clover Project, a non-profit community garden started and run by teens whose goal is to feed the hungry in Dutchess County, donated over 1,000 tons of tomatoes to organizations such as Dutchess Outreach’s Lunch Box and the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie. All it took for them to take off was a plot of land owned by Trish Beck — the mother of Matthew Beck, a co-founder along with Cameron Brady. The land wasn’t being used and was for sale when Brady and Beck came to Trish with a proposition. Since then, the teens have made lofty goals, aspiring to donate 10 tons of food and to assist more than 1,000 families.
But the field can’t maintain operation once October hits and the ground begins to harden. The field is visibly barren, leading to questions about other places those in need can access the help they require and deserve.
“The goal of the club… is to analyze what was done right and wrong this tear and make the process more efficient next year,” Brady said. “Hopefully producing a great yield and feeding more people.”
Good news for those in said need, though: from Jan. 1 to Sept. 4 this year, FeedHV — “a regional food rescue and harvesting network dedicated to meeting the needs of neighbors while mitigating the impacts of food waste,” according to their own mission — sourced 32,011 pounds of fruits and vegetables, as well as 12,800 pounds of food from restaurants and caterers for those in need. “Roughly 250 pounds of cucumbers placed by FeedHV came from the Clover Project,” wrote Barbara Gallo Farrell for the Poughkeepsie Journal in September. “Soon, hundreds of pounds of squash will join it.”
Sounds like these teens are on their way to achieving their goal. It also sounds like organizations of various operational styles are collaborating in order to ensure that, as Stermer said, food insecurity is not limited to a particular time of year.
“We plan to continue this project into next year,” Brady said. “[At Arlington], we are in the process of starting a club for the project to inspire the younger classes to get involved.”
Elsewhere in the Hudson Valley, people are fighting the epidemic, if you will. Rockland Community Against Hunger has raised over $6,000 for the RCAH Food Recovery Program, and ensure those able to donate to the 40-plus food pantries and feeding programs throughout the county. Each year, Croton-On-Hudson hosts the Harry Chapin Run Against Hunger, which has over $15,000 in an effort to fight hunger. But, as the cliché goes, there’s a long way to go. Good thing the efforts can continue year-round. After all, there is no season nor off-season for hunger.
