When The Food Bank for Westchester began a holiday program encouraging companies to give a monetary donation in the name of their clients in lieu of gifts, Concorde Staffing Group in White Plains was one of the first to sign up.
Since then, more than 35 companies have gotten on board ”“ a big boost for the nonprofit, which has seen demand for food spike in the past year.
“Two-thirds of what we get donated here in terms of money comes from corporations and individuals,” said Christina Rohatynskyj, executive director of The Food Bank for Westchester Inc. “It really adds up. Over the last 10 or 15 years, corporations don”™t give out big hunks of money anymore like they used to, so whatever we get from Concorde Cares (the staffing agency”™s program) adds up, it makes a huge difference.”
The Food Bank, created in 1989, provides food and technical assistance to food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in Westchester County, which in turn offer groceries to take home or cooked meals.
“We provide 200 agencies with food and assistance and we believe that there are 200,000 people in Westchester who are hungry or at risk of hunger needing support,” Rohatynskyj said. “Demand has increased. Our agencies are reporting anywhere from 15 percent increase to 150 percent increase in the number of clients that are coming through the door either asking for a meal or asking for groceries. We just did an average for this past fiscal year and the demand increased by 15 percent overall, and yet our food distribution only increased 9 percent, so we didn”™t meet the need.”
Bill Bernstein, vice president of Concorde, has been a Food Bank board member for 10 years.
“It makes more sense to be a good corporate citizen and make a donation to (a) charity ”¦ in Westchester,” Bernstein said. “Being involved with the Food Bank is really complimentary to what we do. We”™re showing our corporate clients that we care about the community that we live in and we care about the people who walk into our doors.”
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Richard Greenwald, president of Concorde, said every email the company sends out includes a link to the Food Bank”™s web site.
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“The ultimate goal is to get other people around us involved,” Greenwald, who started the Concorde Cares program, said.
Bernstein said there is a perception problem with the Food Bank.
“We live in one of the richest communities in the United States, and you would think that there”™s not a hunger issue, but the hunger issue is prevalent,” Bernstein said. “You look at Westchester, you look at the zip codes, you look at the average income per town, but in more of the urban areas in Westchester, you have a huge population that needs to be fed. We look for people to place in jobs. We”™re looking for the best and the brightest. We need the youth of this community to grow up to be the best and the brightest and they can”™t do it without proper nutrition.”
Rohatynskyj said these days, food is leaving the warehouse in Millwood “like there”™s no tomorrow.”
“We can”™t keep anything in the warehouse,” Rohatynskyj said. “We know there is a demand. We know that people are coming more often, asking for more and more people are showing up at the doors. If you check with the Department of Social Services, their increase in this past fiscal year for food stamps has increased over 20 percent. That”™s a huge jump, and people who never in their wildest dreams thought they”™d be in this position ”“ they still have a house, they still have a car, they”™re struggling to make all those payments ”“ have no cash for food. People in the northern parts of the county don”™t want to go to food pantries in their neighborhood; they want to go somewhere where nobody knows them. It”™s difficult for anybody. This is a reality for many, many families.”
