VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Food Bank of CNY helps to feed thousands of New Yorkers this Thanksgiving
Margaret McCann: Out in the industrial landscape of the ongoing I-81 construction, you may be surprised to find an organization with so much warmth and heart. The Food Bank of Central New York, founded in 1985, serves the low-income and food-insecure citizens of 11 counties in CNY. Food bank chief development officer Lynn Hy says that the importance of the bank cannot be stressed enough.
Lynn Hy: I think the importance is in the numbers, really. When you hear that 22.5 million pounds of food was distributed, that immediately shows you the importance of the work.
McCann: In the last year alone, the food bank delivered 22.5 million pounds of food to communities. Hy says that her past 14 years working at the bank has been rewarding in every way.
Hy: I love every single minute of it. You can’t have a better feeling than, at the end of the day, you know that whatever you did, you are helping to raise awareness. You’re helping to feed somebody that’s in need.
McCann: The food bank focuses on meeting communities where they are for their own unique needs. Hy says that the volunteers, partners and individuals who work with the food bank are there to get the job done with dignity.
Hy: We all see the increased prices that are out there in the community. You see people struggling, you hear more about so many individuals and families struggling, and then, when you’re here, sometimes we hear the heartbreaking stories.
McCann: While the services the food bank offers are always important, this time of the year has millions of Americans wondering and worrying how they’re going to put that Thanksgiving meal on the table. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the food bank’s supplies are flying off of their shelves and into the community.
Hy: We know that our partners, those partner agencies that we’re working with in the 11 counties, are ramping up their distributions and doing those special holiday boxes and everything.
McCann: While most would assume this means turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing, Hy says that that’s not always the case with the communities they serve.
Hy: Not everybody wants turkey, first of all. But, not everybody can store a turkey, not everybody can cook a turkey, some people, especially in our new American population, they might not even know what to do with a turkey.
McCann: While Hy’s Thanksgiving preparations may look a little different than your average American’s, the sense of community the holiday brings is alive and well at the CNY food bank.
Hy: It’s the entire emergency food network that fosters that inclusion, that fosters that equity and availability of food for all.
McCann: Reporting from Syracuse, New York for NCC News, I’m Margaret McCann.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Food Bank of Central New York has been helping to feed the citizens of CNY that are low-income or food-insecure for almost 40 years. Starting in a simple gymnasium, the food bank has grown and expanded into a 100-square-foot warehouse that now services 11 counties in CNY.
Chief development officer Lynn Hy said that even though she’s been working with the food bank for 14 years, the feeling of happiness never really wears off.
“I love every minute of it,” Hy said. “You can’t have a better feeling than, at the end of the day, you know that whatever you did, you are helping to raise awareness. You’re helping to feed somebody that’s in need.”
Hy says that, over the years, her love for the bank’s message has become personal. With her son being born just three years into the job, she says he essentially grew up at the bank and that she is grateful to impart some important messages of community and volunteering onto him at such a young age.
“I think he does a good job of that. He’s an 11-year-old boy, so we’re continuing to grow on that, but I’m really proud that I’m able to do that,” Hy said.
With their Thanksgiving meal preparations in full swing, the bank tries to center around its mission of meeting their communities where they are, rather than having them ‘come’ to the bank. Volunteers move thousands of pounds of traditional and not-so-traditional Thanksgiving foods in preparation for an influx in food drives and pantry needs.
Thanks to a recent grant, the bank was able to study the cultural food habits of the communities they serve, leaving them with a wealth of knowledge about what the people they benefit really want and need for Thanksgiving.
“They cook with a lot of spices, which is something we didn’t really have,” Hy said. “With this grant, we were able to purchase spices and infuse them into the pantries, so people had those items that they were used to cooking with.”
The food bank was able to move 22.5 million pounds of food in the last year alone out to different food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters here in CNY that directly benefit the surrounding communities.
To inquire about volunteer opportunities with the Food Bank of CNY, visit https://www.foodbankcny.org/ .