Food pantry donations will be collected during and throughout the day of the Oneonta holiday parade to benefit the Veteran’s Outreach Center Saturday, Dec. 6.
During the parade, which starts at 3:30 p.m., members of Cooperstown Oneonta Indivisible will be marching along the parade route with shopping carts to collect individual items for the outreach center’s food pantry.
Full bags and boxes of groceries can be brought to the outreach center at 4 Academy St., drive-thru style, from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., individual food items, like cans of soup, and personal items will be collected at Muller Plaza in crates. The entire food drive goes from about noon to 6 p.m., but split up into three different opportunities and places to contribute.
Donation efforts were organized by Cooperstown Oneonta Indivisible with the SUNY Oneonta Chapter of United University Professions.
“I think that we have seen incredible support from the community for the community, and we need to continue that during the holiday time more than ever because we know that the holiday season is when we have the most increase in crises,” said Kerri Lincoln, a case manager at the outreach center. “Things like suicide and depression are all increased during the holiday season.”
Lincoln said in the past few weeks, the center has continued to see an increase in people using the food pantry. She said difficulty paying utility bills seems to be pushing people to the pantry as well as continued uncertainty regarding SNAP benefits. She added that this food drive would take advantage of a large gathering of people.
“Knowing that there is food available and a place that veterans and families can come to receive the things they need can lighten that, contribute to the success of the veterans and families during that time,” Lincoln continued.
Virginia Kennedy, the group leader of Cooperstown Oneonta Indivisible, said the group has organized food drives at events, especially rallies. She said it offers a strong opportunity to stock the food pantries where a lot of people are in attendance. With the parade and tree lighting Saturday, Kennedy said it presented another public gathering for people to contribute.
As Cooperstown Oneonta Indivisible is not holding any holiday events that would draw a large, public gathering, Kennedy said it decided to hold one food drive for the Cooperstown Food Pantry and one in Oneonta. On Saturday, Nov. 15 at its food drive in Cooperstown, Kennedy said the group collected $200 and more than 500 pounds of food.
She credited Mayor Mark Drnek, who she said wanted to make the food drive in Oneonta “bigger and better” and suggested using the day of holiday-themed events to get more people in the community involved.
“We decided we can do Muller Plaza, we can march in the parade, we can make it very celebratory (and) bring more people to Oneonta to celebrate,” Kennedy said. “At the same time, we can hopefully really help the vet center because these are very difficult times for so many people.”
She said with cuts to SNAP and rising expenses, the public has a responsibility to fill in the gap and ensure there is enough food for people, especially during the holiday season.
In addition to SNAP concerns, Kennedy said the affordability crisis as a whole leaves people needing food pantry services so they can pay other bills, like the electric bill. She said the crisis is “frightening for people who work very hard to make ends meet when those ends no longer meet.”
“It’s really important that we all give and support, but the underlying affordability crisis needs to be solved by policy,” Kennedy said. “While we are very dedicated to supporting our community in this way, we are also very aware that we need policies that make life livable for hard-working people. That’s something we want to bring attention to as we do these food drives.”