Guilderland food pantry feeds needy at Thanksgiving, beyond - Albany Times Union

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 1of/8

Caption

Image 1 of 8

Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility employees, left to right, Brian Keller, transport driver, Gary March, assistant administrator, Erica Rogan, a hospital liaison, Jessica Barbuti, a hospital liaison, and Wendy Decker, an admissions coordinator, unload turkeys at the Guilderland Food Pantry on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 2 of 8

Susan Hennessy, second from left, co-director of the Guilderland Food Pantry, talks with volunteers at the pantry in the basement of the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, before making up food packages for families, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 3 of 8

Volunteers, Judy Miller, left, of Guilderland and Ellen Gilbert of Altamont help pack up food bags for families at the Guilderland Food Pantry in the basement of the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 4 of 8

Volunteer Emily DiBartolomeo of Guilderland helps pack up food bags for families at the Guilderland Food Pantry in the basement of the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 5 of 8

Bertha Adamczak of Guilderland helps pack up food bags for families at the Guilderland Food Pantry in the basement of the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. Adamczak has been volunteering with the pantry since 2006. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 6 of 8

Volunteers help pack up food bags for families at the Guilderland Food Pantry in the basement of the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 7 of 8

Reenie Pasquali, left, of Guilderland and Craig Sargent of Altamont help pack up food bags for families at the Guilderland Food Pantry in the basement of the Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016, in Guilderland, N.Y. Pasquali and Sargent have been volunteering at the pantry for the past eight years. The food pantry, which was started in 1979, has been doing the Thanksgiving Holiday meals for families for over 10 years. This year they will feed 72 families, up 10 families from last year. The food bags are made up from donations from area churches, individuals and businesses. This year the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility provided half the turkeys going into the food packages. Outside of the holidays the food pantry serves roughly 289 clients in the Guilderland area. In 2015 the community donated 5,000 pounds of food, which created 12,000 meals. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union) less

Photo: PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Image 8 of 8

Guilderland

I was astonished, and then embarrassed, to find I only needed to drive 4.1 miles from my house to learn about the depth of poverty and need that exists in my town.

It's easy to look past the have-nots in an affluent suburb of 35,000 people where the median household income is $77,581, about $20,000 higher than the state average, and nearly 40 percent of families have incomes above $100,000.

Susan Hennessy, 61, a retired Schalmont elementary schoolteacher, also experienced a revelation about the town where she's lived for many years.

"I didn't even know there was a food pantry in town," said Hennessy, who for the past three years has run the Guilderland Food Pantry.

Beyond the high-end custom homes, luxury automobiles and expensive restaurants, poverty is not hard to find. Hennessy discovered that one in four school kids in Altamont qualify for a free lunch, a key indicator of poverty.

"I was shocked by the level of poverty we have here," she said. She is assisted by her husband, Mark Hopper, and 15 core volunteers. They gather donations, stock pantry shelves and make deliveries to shut-ins or people who don't own a car. The pantry serves more than 240 people. They give out food five mornings and one evening each week. They use donated space in the basement of Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church on Western Avenue, which they've outgrown. Their budget is about $15,000 annually, all from small donations.

I've driven by that church countless times and never knew it housed a food pantry, or that the pantry's been there since 1979.

Hunger and poverty tend to be pushed into the shadows by shame and stigma. Most of the people I approached as they stood in a long line to receive a free Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday did not want to talk to me.

"We try get to know the people to de-stigmatize it," Hennessy said. "People go hungry in town because they do not ask for food."

Hennessy and her husband are members of Christ's Church Guilderland. Several members of the a nondenominational congregation volunteer at the food pantry. They're assisted in food donation campaigns and in other ways by seven other churches in town, including Catholic, Episcopal, United Methodist, Lutheran and Reformed congregations.

"What I've learned is that Guilderland has a great sense of community," said Hopper, 62, a retired American history teacher at Shenendehowa High School. "Any time the pantry runs low, we put out the call and people respond."

Beth Swanson, of North Greenbush, who attends Christ's Church, came with daughters Ava, 10, who is home-schooled, and Genevieve and her friend Juliana Paddock, both 10th-graders at Loudonville Christian School. They were on holiday break.

"This is an eye-opener for the girls. It shows that poverty is not just a faraway problem, but a next-door problem," said Swanson, who took her daughters on a church mission trip to assist indigenous Maya people in Guatemala. "This is a reminder that we don't need to go to Guatemala to see poverty."

"This makes me want to do more to help people in need," said Genevieve Swanson, who delivered meals last year and enjoyed chatting with and praying with some of the recipients.

"The holidays are a really hard time for some people. It's nice to be able to help out people in our backyard," Juliana Paddock said.

"This is a way to give back to the community and to say thank you for all the support they've given us," said Wendy Decker, admissions coordinator of the Guilderland Center Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility, which has 127 beds. Decker was joined by four staffers. They donated 16 turkeys and delivered meals to four families with canned corn, beans and yams, fresh fruit, stuffing, butter, rolls, Jell-O and a half-gallon of milk. Families had a choice of turkey, ham, chicken or a $20 Stewart's gift card.

The largest donation this year came from the Boy Scouts of Troop 83 of Guilderland, who gathered 1,500 pounds of food by a door-to-door campaign. Last year, the students of Guilderland Elementary School collected 1,500 pounds of food for Christmas.

"It's a nice feeling to show up with a bag of food and get a big smile," said Jason Rogers, a real estate agent from Voorheesville and member of Christ's Church. He was joined by his mother, Rose Anne Rogers, of Altamont.

"I'm happy to help out people who don't have as much as we do," his mother said. "This is the Lord's work."

Vicky Guitar drove her mother, Glenna Stygles, who is 74 and blind, to pick up a Thanksgiving meal. "They give an awesome amount of food," Stygles said.

"I appreciate the help she gets," her daughter said. "She's on a fixed income and it relieves a lot of pressure."

I made two deliveries. One went to Deborah Laffin, 59, who has lived for four years in a one-bedroom motel room along Western Avenue after relocating from Albany. She worked as an aide for developmentally disabled adults but became disabled herself due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. She breathes with the aid of bottled oxygen.

"This place is what I could afford after I got sick and couldn't work anymore," she said. "They're really nice people at the food pantry. It comes in handy when I run out of food stamps. It's nice to know they're there."

At a senior apartment, I met Joan, 62, a retired state worker from Albany who asked that her last name not be used. She fell recently and fractured some ribs. She apologized for being in pajamas at noontime. The shades were drawn and her tidy apartment was dark. Her husband, Anthony, died a year ago from cancer and her relatives live in Florida.

It will be a quiet Thanksgiving this week, but she was thankful for the food delivery. She planned to bake pumpkin and apple pies. Her friend, Denise, will come to her room for supper.

Homemade pies make life a little sweeter, she said, and so does her good friend.

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl