Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry Director Susan Meyers (center) confers with her team of volunteers as they prepare for Thanksgiving.

The Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry is a quiet hive of activity this time of year — the holidays. The pantry gathers resources from around the area, especially the Tuxedo and Sloatsburg communities, and provides a powerful draw that pulls people together for a common cause — to help care for those with a little less.

This week the Food Pantry, housed in the basement of the Sloatsburg United Methodist Chapel, gathered volunteers to prepare Thanksgiving food boxes for between 80 and 120 families. Tuesday, November 26, Food Pantry Director Susan Meyers and volunteers picked up turkeys donated from ShopRite to complete the special holiday food donations. ShopRite donates Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas hams to the Food Pantry.

Frozen turkeys from ShopRite that will find their way to someone’s family Thanksgiving table.

“This time of year is stressful,” Meyers said, as she worked pulling tables together for Tuesday’s activity. “Everyone’s thinking about food, which can be really expensive.”

Meyers has managed the Food Pantry for some five years now and during that period established an impressive network of community volunteers and food donation points. She was quick to point out that the Sloatsburg Library has been essential in providing a physical drop-off point for people. And that without all the helping hands throughout the community, the pantry’s task would be near impossible. One example of support was the boxes volunteers used this week to make neat holiday food packages — Suffern businessman Adam Fazio donated an assortment of boxes from his moving and delivery company.

Meyers said that the Sloatsburg Food Pantry purchased nearly 5000 pounds of food this month from the Regional Food Bank of NENY (near Albany) & the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley (in Cornwall-on-Hudson) — which is two truck loads moved through all-volunteer labor.

And once again Ken Hayward, who owns and operates Hayward’s Deli & Market in Sloatsburg, was one of the pantry’s largest behind-the-scenes contributors, pitching in supplies and donating customer coin jar contributions, which alone almost supply the pantry’s monthly food purchases.

Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry

The Sloatsburg UMC Food Pantry’s mission is to provide supplemental, nutritionally balanced food to those in need while respecting the dignity of each person we serve. The UMC Food Pantry is located at the Sloatsburg United Methodist Church, 93 Orange Turnpike. Hours of operation are the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays 3-6 PM. Contact: Susan Meyer, Director (914-393-3160).