Cortland Food Pantry to dedicate new site - Warren Tribune Chronicle

Cortland Food Pantry to dedicate new site - Warren Tribune Chronicle

CORTLAND — After serving area residents for more than 30 years, the Cortland Food Pantry handled by Cortland Area Cares will celebrate the grand opening of its new facility at 1000 Fowler St.

The dedication and ribbon cutting is set 11 a.m. Nov. 12.

Mayor Jim Woofter, Cortland Police Chief Tom Andrews and representatives of area service clubs and churches will cut the ribbon.

Event organizers said the Cortland Optimist Club, along with the Cortland Lions and Rotary, have been supporters through the years and will take part in the ribbon cutting.

Jean Bolinger with Cortland Area Cares said the public will have the opportunity to see the dramatically expanded facility.

In the early 1980s, a group of lay people from Cortland churches met to discuss the possibility of establishing a food pantry in the area. The idea was presented to the local ministerial  association, which agreed to the proposal.

One small room at the Church of God served as the pantry, filled with food purchased by two women, Elva Hopkins and Betty Canfield. Funding and volunteers came from the various churches.

Bolinger said that when the small room became inadequate, the pantry moved to larger quarters in the lower level of the church.

Several years later, space was rented on Pearl Street, but the number of clients who were served each month vastly outgrew that building and the small parking area around it.

She said recently a large portion of a former factory on Fowler Street in Cortland became available to rent.

”With much more space in which to store and distribute the pantry items and plenty of parking space, the new facility is ideal,” Bolinger said.

Managed by Donna Kittle and supported by scores of volunteers, Cortland Area Cares now serves hundreds of people each month.

Food is purchased from Second Harvest Food Bank and also donated by area residents and service clubs.

The Bazetta Police Department’s ”Fill-A-Cruiser” event has the public donating items; the Junior Beta Club fills a school bus with food; and the Rotary, Lions and Interact clubs, as well as numerous other organizations, churches, and individuals, keep the pantry well supplied with food and nonedible items, Bolinger said.

Kittle writes grants to help provide cash to purchase necessary items.

Cortland Area Cares serves residents of the Lakeview school district, as well as members of any of the seven Lakeview Outreach and Fellowship (LOAF) churches.

LOAF is the more current name for the ministerial association, which is a group of  churches that have been working cooperatively for more than 70 years and that have been behind the food pantry since its inception.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com