Some food pantries suffer from a drop in donations after the holiday season, but several local food pantries said that they have enough food that was donated during the holiday season to continue operations.
What the food pantries are really in need of is adult hygiene product donations.
Michael Boron, the director of outreach ministries for St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, said that donations peak right before or during the holiday season, and that "at the moment we are overflowing. We had so many donations." The Sister Helen's Pantry serves around 250 households a month.
Boron said the pantry would rather have donations of adult hygiene products, because it no longer has grant funding to help purchase these products. Adult hygiene products include things like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, deodorant, bath tissue and bars of soap.
Suzanne Shears, the CEO of Niagara Community Action Program, said their food pantries actually have seen an increase in donations after the holiday season. Also, they are able to purchase food from the Food Bank of Western New York for a discounted rate. Their location in Lockport served 2,488 households last year.
She agreed with Boron and said that they are in a need for adult hygiene products.
Wreatha Harvey, one of the co-coordinators of the Newfane Community Pantry, said that "for the most part we do pretty good" throughout the year. They do get an enormous amount donated during the holiday season, but they feel those donations will last them until they have to start asking for food from the food bank.
Also, she mentioned that they work with 11 different churches, which helps them build up a supply.
