Jenny Kirby likes to quietly support local causes. And so Characters Bar & Resaurant in Sloatsburg will pitch in Tuesday evening to support the local Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry.

Kirby operates Characters, along with her sister Dionne Acton and Dionne’s husband Tommy Acton. The restaurant has built up a local following and also helps anchor the village’s north corridor. Kirby’s interest in community causes extends to the Sloatsburg Scholarship Fund, which will have its own Characters fundraiser on May 6.

But today, Tuesday, April 30, is dedicated to the Food Pantry. After 4 p.m., Characters will donate 15% of each diner’s food tab back to the Food Pantry — which includes both diners who eat in and take out.

The Food Pantry operates nearly across the street from Characters at the original white Methodist Episcopal Chapel built on land given by Jacob Sloat and in 1843. Now part of the Sloatsburg United Methodist Church, the Food Pantry  resides in the old chapel’s downstairs kitchen and serves approximately 130 members twice a month — all families and students within the Ramapo Central and Tuxedo Union Free school districts.

“Families come in to get three days’ worth of food,”  said Susan Meyer, pantry director. “We serve three meals per person, three days’ worth of supplements.”

Part of a larger alliance of food pantries and feeding programs across Rockland County, the food pantry is a near invisible but vital living example of neighbors helping neighbors.

“We are grateful for all donations, food or monetary,” Meyer said. “Nothing goes to waste. It’s hard to imagine that nourishing food is one of the first things to be cut from a family’s list of expenses, but skipping a meal or cutting portions in half is a reality for so many of our neighbors.”

Characters is part of a unified Sloatsburg effort to support the Food Pantry. With drop-off boxes easily available to patrons, the Sloatsburg Public Library collects food donations from the community and local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops regularly hold food drives — as well as all of the Ramapo Central elementary schools. Hayward’s Deli also regularly supplies the Food Pantry with any number of items.

This evening anyone who stops in at Characters for dinner, or any food, can lend a hand and know that a small bite of their bill goes to a worthy cause.

The Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry will be open December 4 and 18. In January 2013, it will be open the second and fourth Tuesday of each month from 3-6 pm. Anyone interested in volunteering or with questions, call 914/393-3160. If you would like to make a monetary donation to the pantry, you can do so by sending a check to: the Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry, 93 Orange Turnpike, Sloatsburg NY 10974.