Archive: Around Town

Representatives of 16 local food pantries and other local relief organizations gathered at the Tompkins County Cooperative Extension Wednesday to thank Cargill Deicing Technology for a $100,000 donation the company gave to the Tompkins County Food Distribution Network.  The donation was a significant windfall, especially for local pantries that are seeing a greater need due to the economic downturn, but operate on a shoestring.

"It was a great opportunity to touch every little piece of Tompkins County," said Tompkins County Red Cross Director of Homeless Services John Ward.  "The Pantry Network represents the most rural areas of the county and we want to make sure that those folks are getting fed, and that they have some of the resources that the other pantries may have.  So this was a really good way to spread the wealth and touch some of those rural areas of our county that are really struggling."


Cargill Human Resource Manager Toni Adams knew of the Lansing Food Pantry because it is almost literally across the street from the Cargill facility at the Lansing United Methodist Church.  She offered the money to that pantry's Director Nancy Myers.  Myers knew that many of the other food pantries in the county are even less well-supported than hers, and suggested that the donation be offered to the whole network of 16 food pantries plus the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.

"It was a new experience for me," Adams said.  "I knew about the Lansing pantry and other towns.  But I didn't realize there was an actual network.  It was pretty eye opening."


Local food pantries get support from Federal, State and Local Governments, businesses including Tops, Wegman's, Suresave, Cornell, and the Farmer's Market, and from individuals.  The Cargill donation is the largest the network has received to date.  It is also the largest single donation the local Cargill unit has awarded.  The company has donated an additional $25,000 to other local organizations, as well as being one of the sponsors of Lansing Harbor Festival and helping with the annual Vietnam Veterans' Watchfire event each year at the Lansing Town Park.

Ward singles out Myers for sharing the donation to help hungry people across the county, rather than Lansing only.

"She's fabulous," he says.  "$100,000 was offered to the Lansing Food Pantry.  Nancy is such a wonderful team player that she offered it to the entire network."


Adams and Cargill Mine Manager Russ Givens were presented with a stack of letters from each food pantry, thanking them for the donation.  They were introduced to pantry directors and volunteers, who had countless stories about the good the money will do.  Givens explained that the donation is part of a larger program of giving that the international company donates world-wide.


"A lot of people know the name Cargill from the Lansing area's salt mine," he said.  "Really the salt mine is just one small piece of the Cargill organization.  This gift was part of a world-wide effort totalling $5 million.  For the Ithaca area to see $100,000 of that is quite good.  We are happy to be able to do it.  Doing things here in the community where our employees live and work and benefit from is very good business for us to do."

That makes a big difference in Tompkins County, where some pantries have seen a 25% increase in people needing food.  The Tompkins County Food Distribution Network pantries are also clients of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, which serves 101,055 people across the county.  They have distributed 1,071,463 pounds of food in Tompkins County valued at $1,596,480 to 35,119 households, including 63,284 children, 109,221 adults, and 173,767 seniors.  More than 13,000 Tompkins County residents live below the poverty level.  33% of them are children.

This is the greatest gift we have ever received," Ithaca Kitchen Cupboard Director Joan Barber told Adams and Givens.  "All of us have benefited so much from it.  I am able to give the people twice as much food in Danby.  Our budget used to be $1,000 per month.  For the last few months I've been spending $2,000 per month.  In one month Kitchen Cupboard served 700 people.  Just in one month in one cupboard.  We give those people nine meals or more.  See where a dollar can go?"

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