Oct 31, 2017 11:46 AMA ruckus was coming from the kitchen of the Springs Community Presbyterian Church, where about a dozen women were unpacking, cleaning and organizing a huge amount of vegetables.Besides fresh greens, there were plastic crates full of fresh squash and corn, as well as canned meat and canned fruit—all to be arranged for display in the main hall before 4 p.m., when financially struggling Springs residents would stop by for groceries to make their next meals.
“The staff is a well-oiled machine,” said Dru Raley, the pantry’s coordinator, on October 18 as volunteers shuffled in and out of the kitchen. “They come in early in the morning to organize the food in the pantry,” she said, adding, “The people here are very friendly, and nice, and real.”
“It makes you feel useful, like you’re part of a community,” said Anne McCann, a pantry volunteer. “I was saying to my husband how I’ve never worked with people who you ask to do something, and they just say, ‘Yes.’ It makes you feel like you’re contributing.”
The pantry is open year-round from 4 to 6 p.m. each Wednesday. Ms. Raley said when it was first started in 1992, only five families of four would come for food. Thanks to word of mouth that got around over the years, 89 families were served by the pantry on October 18 of this year, with 96 families served the week before that.
“Every month, the number seems to be growing,” Ms. Raley said. “We seldom went under 50 families coming into the summer.”
Many of the pantry’s clients work seasonal jobs in landscaping and restaurants. While Ms. Raley said that volunteers ask clients to bring a form of photo ID to prove that they live Springs, she also added that they make exceptions for people who for some reason can’t use other local pantries.
Ms. Raley said funding and food donations come from local residents and such organizations as Long Island Cares, the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program and Island Harvest.
Ms. McCann and Pamela Bicket, another pantry volunteer, plan out the selection of foods a month ahead of time. Ms. Bicket said the choice of foods to be offered follows national nutritional guidelines to include a protein, two pieces of fresh fruit, a starch and fresh vegetables. Ms. McCann said breakfast alternates between cereal and eggs, lunch choices include macaroni and cheese and canned meat, and dinner selections rotate chicken, fish and hamburger meat.
“We’re very excited for the choice that we offer to people,” Ms. McCann said. “We used to just hand them a bag of food, and then people were saying to us that we had not been offering certain things.”
Fresh fruits and vegetables are donated by local farms such as Quail Hill in Amagansett. Canned and frozen foods are stored in a literal pantry in the church, with two freezers and shelves full of food and volunteers’ hopes of finding more storage space.
Ms. Raley said the pantry donates leftover food to the East Hampton Senior Center, the Phoenix House drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, and The Retreat, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.
The annual Polar Bear Plunge at East Hampton’s Main Beach is one place where the Springs Food Pantry joins other local pantries in trying to get the word out about what it offers.
It’s important to make new people feel at ease on their initial visit to the pantry, Ms. McCann said.
“When people first come in, they’re very shy,” she said. “We tried bringing in single guys who are hunched over. They soon start smiling and relaxing inside. That’s huge.”
“It feels like we’ve built a relationship with the recipients,” said Ms. Bicket.
