On August 27th, 2016 thanks to a giving and caring community and roughly 100 volunteers, the Victor/Farmington Food Cupboard partnered with Willowbrook Christian Church in Victor, the Victor/Farmington Library, Foodlink and Catholic Charities of Ontario County to share school related resources with over 350 families.  These resources included gently used clothing and bedding, new school supplies/backpacks, and school snacks so that children and their families could head back to the classroom prepared for the new school year.

We wanted to thank every volunteer who helped with every aspect of this event from donating clothing and supplies, to folding clothing, to sorting and packing school supplies.  We could not have accomplished such a giant task without the time, energy and generous physical support of so many volunteers!

We heard a story from volunteer Dan Williams after the event that will demonstrate why this effort is ongoing and worth the work:

Dan said as he walked across the Willowbrook Church parking lot that morning at 9:00 am he overheard a young man say to his mom, “I don’t even want to go to school, I don’t know why we have to come to this dumb thing!”  Dan was at the other end of the gym when this same young man came through with a giant armful of clothing and exclaimed, “Wait until they see me now!!”

Mission accomplished.

This time of year is inextricably linked with food and family and traditions that link those things. When a family is dealing with food insecurity the emotions are so far from what we all wish for one another. Our community is particularly blessed and exquisitely sensitive to the needs of our neighbors around Ontario County.

This month the Victor First Presbyterian Church will host a Thanksgiving community dinner on November 14th. This dinner is open to anyone who wishes to come, from 5 to 7 pm. On Thanksgiving day St. Patrick’s Church in Victor will host a Thanksgiving dinner also, in the early afternoon and this is also open to anyone who wishes to attend. Both dinner coordinators would be happy to accept donations of Thanksgiving food, if you are in a position to help, but there is no need to bring anything in order to attend.

In addition to those free dinners, Thanksgiving food baskets will be given out to families who signed up at the Food Cupboard. Sign ups are taking place now for Christmas Food baskets and the Food Cupboard is happy to accept food donations for either of those holiday programs, or for help keeping our shelves stocked this winter.

On November 16th, the Victor First Presbyterian Church will begin taking donations of clothing for a December 19th “Give Around Victor” clothing distribution. “Give Around Victor Day” will include the distribution of gifts to selected Food Cupboard families as well as the distribution of Christmas Food Baskets and several other fun giving opportunities. Please see the Give Around Victor Day Facebook page for the latest news and ways to volunteer!

If you would like to sponsor a Food Cupboard family for one month or one year please scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the donate button. It costs us approximately $20 to feed a family each month. Your donation can be one time or recurring, it’s completely up to you and you will receive a thank you note from us!

If you need more information about volunteering for the Food Cupboard, or any of these programs, feel free to e-mail Karen Guidarelli at: kguidare@rochester.rr.com

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for caring about hungry families in our community!

Thanks to Chef Tim and his parents Jim and Sue Archetko for their incredible support once again! We were able to raise just over $16,000 at the May 18th fundraiser for the Food Cupboard at Otto Tomotto’s. We will post pictures here soon and wish to thank the staff at Otto’s as well as the wonderful Legends Radio celebrities who joined us!
And thank you to those who stood in the heat to support us, we are so very grateful! Mama even fell with a tray of meatballs in hand and ended up having her head glued back together that morning–taking one for the team again…thanks to Carol S for being the urgent care taxi again and to all of Tim’s staff who give up their entire day every year to pull off this huge event! We are so grateful for all the volunteers who come in and out all day making meatballs, bagging bread, setting up and running around–next year we’ll make everyone sign in so we can thank you by name! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support!

The Victor/Farmington Food Cupboard feeds anyone in emergency food need, no matter where they live (and often people who do not have stable housing). On a more routine basis, we provide food for an average of 500 local families per month. Shoppers are permitted to come once a month and receive approximately four days worth of food. Since the Food Cupboard has no paid staff and very low overhead costs, we are able to serve this volume of families for about $20.00 per month per family. This is thanks to donated food and our valued partners Foodlink, Target, Wade’s, Victor Wal-Mart, Victor BJ’s and the Perinton Wegman’s as well as local businesses who run food and fund drives.

Our Neighbors Feeding Neighbors campaign is a way for families and individuals to become directly involved in ensuring that one family receives the food they need. By clicking on the Paypal link at the bottom of our website, donors can pledge a one time donation or can make a monthly contribution equal to the cost of feeding one or more families.

While we are mentioning partners we do need to give deepest thanks to Otto Tomotto’s for their incredible ongoing generosity to the Food Cupboard. The American Legion, Cobblestone Women’s Guild, Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs, Victor Parks and Recreation Department, Victor/Farmington faith communities, Victor/Farmington Boy and Girl Scouts, Victor Merchants Association, Victor Central Schools and the Town of Victor,the Ivy Thimble, Griffen Bakery and Apparel Printers. We are so grateful for so many local farmers who donate throughout the growing season, and to the team that weeds/waters and harvests from the St. Pat’s community garden (we’ll forget someone if we list names on this one). If you know of a donor we’ve forgotten to mention please leave their name as a comment and we’ll correct the oversight! Suffice it to say, it takes a village to feed the hungry in this community.

To donate to our Neighbors Feeding Neighbors campaign, just click on the donate link below or at the bottom of this website. You will receive an e-mail receipt as well as a thank you note from the Food Cupboard and our deepest gratitude for helping us continue the mission of ridding this community of hunger. Thank you!

Donate

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6VQL2UYC2Y8TW

3 New Ways to Help Neighbors Feed Neighbors!!

1) Recycle your bottles and cans at Tomra Recycling 5923 Loomis Rd. Farmington, NY 14425 and just ask the employee put your refund into the V-F Food Cupboard account. Every time donations reach $50, we receive a check!

2) Please consider sponsoring a family by donating $20 per month through our Pay Pal account. It’s secure, easy, and tax deductible. You will be giving that family 4 days worth of food every month.

3) May 18th is the annual Otto Tomato’s Mama’s Birthday Bash! Dinners will be served from 3-9 p.m. for $5 and we receive the profits. This year’s goal is 2,500 meals

And as always, food donations can be made anytime at the food cupboard’s exterior donation box and monetary donations are GRATEFULLY accepted by mail at our Victor Post Office Box 154.

National Make A Difference Day is an opportunity to roll up our collective sleeves and create change. The event was launched and is supported by the Paul Newman Foundation and USA Today and is scheduled for October 25th this year.

The Victor/Farmington Food Cupboard receives and distributes 20 tons of food each month, 40,000 pounds! And that is just enough to sustain each of 500 families for approximately 3 days. If we could collect 40,000 pounds of food in one day the ripple effect would be substantial: we could reach our goal of giving each family enough food for 5 days, we could see that our families each receive food for the holidays, and we could save purchasing power for January and February when donations tend to fall off.

Would you be willing to help us? Here are the details:

National Make a Difference Day
40,000 Pound 12 Hour Challenge
October 25, 2014
8:00 am to 8:00 pm
This is a drive-thru drive–just pull up and we’ll gratefully accept your donation and give a receipt!

As children in our community start  looking nervously for the school bus, parents are looking at school supply lists that can be overwhelming. A few years ago the VF Food Cupboard began a program to give limited school supplies to Food Cupboard families. This year, based on feedback from the community, we’ll be hosting a “Giveapalooza” at Willowbrook Church to assist on several fronts. Saturday, August 30th from 9 am to noon we will be giving out school supplies, school snacks and gently used clothing of all sizes.

We would welcome donations gratefully on August 25, 26 and 27 from 8 am to 2 pm. August 28th and 29th we’ll have extended hour from 8 am to 7 pm. All donations can be dropped off at Willowbrook Church, 619 High Street in Victor 14564. We are also seeking volunteers to help sort and pack from 2 to 7 pm Thursday and Friday.

This is very important:  Any family is welcome to come choose clothing, families who need school supplies and snacks will need to sign up at the Food Cupboard by August 25th.

Also, our Hunger Hero contest is being extended to August 29th for those 5 to 12 year olds who are collecting change for us. Details are on the flyer available at the Victor (Main Street) Canandaigua National Bank and the winners of the Eastview Mall $50 gift cards will be notified Saturday August 30th!!

As summer lingers and summer programs begin to wane, kids often contact us looking for something to do and a way to help out. This year in collaboration with Canandaigua National Bank and Eastview Mall we’ve decided to launch a “Hunger Hero” campaign and have young community members collect spare change to donate. We thought this would be a great way to let our youngest volunteers know that every penny counts when we all work together. A link to the flyer with all the details is attached to this post. Thank you to anyone who can share this information!

Hunger hero flyer

Thank you, too, to the many volunteers who assist the Food Cupboard year round in so many ways. We have well over 200 volunteers to thank, including those who have given up Saturday mornings to help with the Saturday food distributions this summer. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!