While every Thanksgiving is special, this holiday will mark the start of a family tradition for Cutchogue’s Robin Lockwood.
Lockwood moved to the North Fork with her family from Manhattan in 2021 because she wanted her son to continue getting in-person education and Cutchogue East Elementary School offered just that. The move didn’t just offer educational benefits to her child, though; it also fostered in Lockwood an urge to be more involved in a meaningful way in her new community. Southold’s Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation became the place where she not only found new friends in her new home, but also a place doing the kind of sincere community work that Lockwood could get behind.
“The school was so welcoming, and we just kind of jumped into the community,” she says. “That’s why CAST was so great, because I just got to know all sorts of people.”
With her own boxes barely unpacked, Lockwood stepped right up, helping with CAST’s move from Greenport to Southold in the fall of 2021. When they needed help with food distribution soon thereafter for the first COVID-19-era Thanksgiving, she didn’t hesitate to help then, either — and has been helping ever since. And this year, she’s got company in the form of her 13-year-old son, Crosby.
“I grew up working in a soup kitchen every Thanksgiving when I was little. We’re from the Midwest, we’re from Kansas City, and we would always go to the Salvation Army every Thanksgiving when I was little to help,” Lockwood says. “I feel like [Crosby] can handle it … I really want the tradition of giving back, I want to pass it down to our son as well, as part of our Thanksgiving tradition.”
The urge to volunteer around the holidays is certainly not uncommon. When we look at our own bulging pantries and full tables, it’s nearly impossible not to feel both the graciousness of gratitude and empathy for those with less. The success of our local food pantries helping those in need isn’t possible without community help all year round, and they receive it. Lately, though, they are under even more pressure to ease the hungry burden of food insecurity here due to increased demand, making this holiday season more challenging than any before.
It’s a calling for which CAST is not alone. From Riverhead east on both forks, there are around 30 food pantries servicing the East End, according to the Suffolk County Government website. CAST alone serves approximately 14% of Southold’s population and, says Demeroto, 31% of the town’s in-need children. Holidays like Thanksgiving only punctuate the ongoing problem. But local organizations here are up to the task of making sure no one walks away from the table hungry, ever.
Feast, No Famine
Getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday at a food pantry is no small matter. While the holiday comes just once a year, organizations working to cull food insecurity across the nation work tirelessly all year long to serve the community. But holidays do require a little extra oomph.
CAST currently serves 1,501 families comprised of 3,711 individuals throughout all of Southold Town’s hamlets and Shelter Island. This year CAST’s clientele has increased by about 254 new households, or 250 new families, according to Cathy Demeroto, the nonprofit’s executive director credited with growing the business and expanding CAST’s services. And she expects Thanksgiving needs to follow suit.
“The need continues to grow,” Demeroto says. “Last year we did 458 families for Thanksgiving, so I do expect that to exceed 500 this year.”
That means Demeroto and her colleagues at CAST will need even more help from the community. CAST starts reaching out to their community partners for donations as early as September. Some of those community partners include Southold Rotary, Harvest Point and Slow Food East End. They also have farm partners they work with for turkey, chicken and ham donations, as well as all the dry goods and fixings.
“We want to ensure that everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, that it has proper nutrition but it’s all the traditions of Thanksgiving,” Demeroto says.
The organization distributes at their headquarters in the heart of Southold the Friday, Monday and Tuesday before the holiday. They also bring sustenance straight to the doors of those with transportation barriers. CAST distributes on Shelter Island, as well at the Cobbetts Lane Firehouse on Nov. 18 this year and will also do deliveries across Southold Town on Nov. 20 and 21.
As part of the ministry of the Church of Saint Agnes, Greenport’s North Fork Parish Outreach serves those in need from Orient to Laurel with food pantry services, as well as no-cost clothing and household items, and financial assistance for those in dire need.
Catherine Harper has been volunteering at NFPO’s food pantry since 1991. She refers to herself as a “serial volunteer” and has volunteered with multiple agencies and organizations since she was 16. After retiring in 2009, she took a full-time position at the outreach. You wouldn’t be far off in calling her a Thanksgiving pro at this point in her volunteering career.
NFPO starts planning for their Thanksgiving distribution on the first working day of September after Labor Day.
“We have to be organized because so many people rely on us,” Harper says. “And we have to be ready for them.”
In early October they start asking community members who would like to pick up from the distribution to register. This year the distribution will be Monday, Nov. 25; Tuesday, Nov. 26; and Wednesday, Nov. 27.
Last year, 180 individuals from 52 families received Thanksgiving baskets. NFPO asks all their donors to have all their contributions in by Wednesday, Nov. 17. Then on Sunday, Nov. 24, volunteers get together to assemble the baskets for the individuals or families who need them.
The Thanksgiving baskets for families of two, four, six or more to a household include cans of peas, green beans, corn, yams, cranberry sauce and chicken broth. There’s also a box of stuffing, potatoes, a jar or can of gravy, a pie, a jug of apple juice and a gift card for the family to buy the meat.
In her time as a volunteer, Harper has had the privilege of witnessing not only the kindness of the community in which she lives, but how that giving spirit continues to grow.
“Some people think that donating to an organization like ours is a kind of one-way street — they give groceries or money and think it stops there. But that’s not true,” she says. “Those who receive our assistance radiate their gratitude in ways that, again, support the community.”
At Open Arms Food Pantry, a community outreach asset of the First Baptist Church of Riverhead, executive director Zona Stroy has been involved with the organization since 2006.
They distribute food twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., serving “upwards of a couple of 100 [clients] on a real busy day,” Stroy says. “It’s controlled chaos, but it’s a magic show. By 1:30, all the tables are back in the church and it’s like nothing ever happened.”
The food pantry used to operate inside the church, where they also had a soup kitchen and lunch program. After the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the demand became so great that they decided the safe thing to do was a drive-through distribution outside of the church.
At any given time, they have about eight to 10 volunteers assisting with distribution. During Thanksgiving week, however, their work becomes even more challenging: Volunteers distribute 100 to 200 turkeys and fixings, serving 150 to 200 clients.
“It’s around the holidays I’m reminded that it takes a village, and that’s a good way to look at it because everybody who can help, usually will help during the holidays,” Stroy says.
(Photo credit: Jeremy Garretson)
It Takes a Village to Feed a Village
This year will mark the fourth “Everything but Turkey” event hosted by Shelter Island’s Presbyterian Church Food Pantry. The event is a group effort in cooperation with the Shelter Island All Faith Youth Group.
Through their work, they provide for about 35 to 40 households every year. The Saturday before Thanksgiving, the food pantry offers “everything a household would need to make a generous meal, except the turkey,” says Carrie Wood, SIPC Food Pantry Coordinator.
Youth Group Volunteers pack up around 40 shares of food to distribute in two bags. The first bag includes staples such as canned goods like green beans, cranberry, corn, gravy, stuffing mix and a loaf of bread. The second bag is loaded with potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions and squash.
Several other tables are set up with other necessary items. After picking up their two bags, food pantry recipients have the choice of one item from each table, which are stocked with beverages, local farm-fresh vegetables, baking mixes, kitchen supplies, dessert and condiments.
All the hard work of these pantries during Thanksgiving, the rest of the holiday season and year-long demonstrates exactly what the season is about—giving comfort and joy to those around us.
“We’re so grateful to the generosity and kindness of the community,” Demeroto says. “I always use this quote from Coretta Scott King: ‘The greatness of the community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members’, and we certainly have a compassionate community.”
Get involved!
For those interested in working with any of these food pantries, here’s who to call.
CAST
53930 Main Road, Southold
(Shelter Island drop-off site is the Cobbetts Lane Fire Station every other Monday, 3 to 6 p.m.)
Contact Volunteer Coordinator Maggie Merrill
Email: [email protected]
North Fork Parish Outreach
523 Front St., Greenport
Contact Director Maria Fedele
Phone: 631-477-6469
Open Arms Care Center Food Pantry
1018 Northville Turnpike, Riverhead
Phone: 631-727-6943
Shelter Island Presbyterian Church Food Pantry
32 N. Ferry Road, Shelter Island
Contact Director Carrie Wood
Email: [email protected]
