CATSKILL — The Matthew 25 food pantry saw people lined up outside on Union Street hours before they opened their doors for the annual turkey handout for Thanksgiving.
The food pantry opened its doors at 10 a.m. to give away up to 140 turkeys to families in need with all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal, for which there is a large need, according to the pantry’s founder and executive director, Patti Dushane.
“I got here at 8:30 a.m., and our clients know we were opening at 10 a.m., but there was already a line down the street,” Dushane said. “We go through a lot of people down here.”
Dushane said this year’s turkey handout had 110 people sign up to receive food, which was less than last year’s 125 people.
“The number of clients we serve has certainly increased,” Dushane said. “We have been doing this for years, but recently I have been seeing a lot of new people coming in, people I don’t know.”
Dushane said the food pantry, a nonprofit organization, assists anyone from the county who is in need.
“A lot of people who came here today work two jobs, are single parents with children or grandparents taking care of children,” Dushane said. “We do whatever we can do.”
The pantry has hit several bumps in the road, starting out in Dushane’s old home on West Bridge Street and then moving to a location on Main Street that ultimately burned down.
But Dushane said she has been blessed with Greene County giving her the building at 8 Union St., and several local businesses donating much needed equipment.
Dushane this year’s handout was made possible by Athens Generating, which gave the pantry a generous monetary donation that Dushane said helped pay for the food, and keeps the pantry going throughout the year.
The pantry also holds several other benefits throughout the year, including Angel Wings, Adopt a Family and its Power Pack program, which provides children at Catskill Elementary School with food to bring home for the weekend, something Dushane continues to do with the help of other students, even after recently retiring from the school.
Dushane said the turkey handout was made possible by the 30 people who signed up to volunteer, including regular volunteers, employees of Athens Generating and members of the local police academy.
Rebecca VanAlstyne has been a volunteer at the pantry for three years. She said it is important to her after she and her family needed help more than 10 years ago, and got that help at Matthew 25 when it was at its original location on West Bridge Street.
“[Dushane] was here when my family was in need. Now that we are no longer in need I volunteer my time to help,” VanAlstyne said.
VanAlstyne said her son, who is 20 years old now, used to volunteer at the pantry too when he was younger.
“He is willing to come down and help if there is anything that needs to get done that requires some muscle,” she said.
VanAlstyne said that Saturday the pantry served a lot of people and that she was happy to help.
“People seemed pretty grateful,” she said. “I volunteer here because there is a sense of family and I get a feeling of fulfillment for giving back.”
The pantry has another food handout for Christmas. For that event, volunteers will stuff bags with food Dec. 22.
