A handful of volunteers waited outside the Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry mid-morning Tuesday, including members of the Ramapo Valley Rotary, in anticipation of the pantry’s annual shipment of turkeys. Suddenly, George Sorice, owner of Sorice Landscaping, pulled into the pantry parking lot, white pickup filled with boxes of frozen turkeys, carefully backed in, and the volunteers — including Michael Trainor, Michelle Tetukevich and Dan Meyer — made quick work of unloading the holiday birds.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year for the food pantry, with 88 families getting boxes of food for this year’s holiday. Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry Director Susan Meyer moved quickly through the kitchen and storeroom, ensuring that the afternoon’s distribution was smooth and that families received the right assistance.

“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.”

While families began arriving, quietly watching the bustle before them, Food Pantry volunteers busied themselves assembling foods collected from throughout the area. Hayward’s Deli & Market once again led the charge as one of Sloatsburg’s most generous supporters of local causes.

“Hayward’s Deli collected turkey donations for us,” said Meyer. “Hayward’s customers also donate hundreds of dollars in spare change every month to help the pantry. It is truly a collaborative effort.”

The whole operation is rooted in community activism, with a little help from big donors. Shop Rite contributed 125 frozen turkeys this year, and large ones at that. The food pantry was able to donate 55 frozen turkeys to George F. Baker High School in Tuxedo, which also holds a holiday food drive.

With drop-off boxes easily available to patrons, the Sloatsburg Public Library collected food from the community and local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops held food drives — as well as all of the Ramapo Central elementary schools. The Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry is a vital Sloatsburg community outreach effort, one that takes place quietly every month but generously gives back to people from the Ramapo Central and Tuxedo Union Free school districts. The pantry serves nearly 100 families a month.

Meyer said that the pantry also purchases most its food from the Regional Food Bank in Albany and the Hudson Valley Food Bank in Cornwall, NY. For every $1 that is donated, Meyer said that the pantry can purchase 8 meals.

“Over the past year our clientele has been steadily growing by 3-5 new families per month,” Meyer said. “The working poor, single parents, elderly, disabled, and those who have recently found themselves unemployed are among some of the stressed lives we help at the pantry each month.”

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.