Welcome

WE WILL BE CLOSED JULY 1 - 4
We will reopen on July 5, for appointments made before July 1.

Irondequoit Community Cupboard, Inc.

The Irondequoit Community Cupboard, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization designed to meet a variety of needs for families and individuals in the Town of Irondequoit, NY.

Mission Statement

“To provide emergency assistance to Irondequoit residents with dignity, kindness and without prejudice.”

Vision

"To raise awareness of the presence and impact of hunger and poverty in our community. We envision a community where all people share resources to ensure that residents’ basic needs are met in times of limited resources.

We advocate for and reach out to those in need and try to influence public policy so that every person in our community has the necessary support and resources to enhance nutrition, health and welfare.”

If you are in need of assistance, please call (585) 336-9107.
(no appointments are made online)

Distribution Hours (BY APPOINTMENT ONLY)
Tuesday & Saturday from 9:30AM - 11:00AM.

Office Hours (BY PHONE ONLY)
Monday & Wednesday 9:00AM - 4:00PM
Fridays 9:00AM-12:00PM

"Letter from the President"
(September 2016)

Dear Friends,

Wow, summer is really over and children everywhere are back at school. In preparation, many of us go school shopping with our children to purchase school supplies, new shoes, new clothes and maybe have a lunch or treat out with mom or dad. But, what if you don’t have money to do any of that? Do you ever wonder what happens to children who go to school without school supplies? Or who went to bed hungry the night before? We do, we think about this often. Because of your monetary donations and school supply donations we were able to provide school supplies for more than 160 children. (and counting) Many of these children also received brand new backpacks. J

People don’t often think about this but families who receive SNAP benefits do NOT see an increase during the summer months. While East Irondequoit school district provided free meals for ANY child 18 and under, many of the children we see did not have the capability of getting to those schools offering the free meal program. We had a record number of families who came to us for assistance as well. Over 300 families with children received food from us during the summer. Again, because of you and your donations. J

Before I go further, there are a couple of important announcements and dates worth noting:

#1 we still need one person to volunteer on the 4th Thursday of every month at 9am to come and fill bags and then deliver them to Brookview. This person needs to be strong and reliable.

#2 we need at least 2 people to be substitutes for the backpack program should something come up

#3 we still need volunteers to fill some empty slots for Saturdays. (I would need you to fill out an application and confidentiality agreement that can be either downloaded from our website, emailed to you, or you can pick one up at ICC on Tuesdays or Saturdays from 900-1000 am. J

#4 Holiday sign-ups will begin on Saturday October 1st from 1115-1200 and continue on Saturdays thru Nov 5th for Thanksgiving basket, November 12th for Special Santa Program and Dec 3rd for the Christmas food basket
All sign-ups are IN PERSON ONLY, you MUST be an Irondequoit resident and we need a current months bill (or lease) for every adult in the household. No exceptions.

#5 On September 26th from 1000am to 1100am The Yoga Nook at Lake Breeze Wellness is hosting a donation based community yoga class. (for all level experiences) All the proceeds come to us with a minimum donation of $5 Lake Breeze Wellness is at 960-D Thomas Avenue 14617

#6 If you are a church, school or organization and someone comes to you and tells you that they tried to contact us but we either didn’t respond, we turned them away or could not provide what they needed, please contact us as soon as possible. We will ALWAYS respond to every call within 48 hours. If someone contacts us and doesn’t hear back from us within 48 hours, then something is wrong on one of our ends. We would like to curb duplication of services but in order to do that we all need to communicate and work together. People often act on instinct in the spirit of giving but please know that we will always do our best to help anyone who comes to us.

September is Hunger Action Month: 1 in 7 people across the country suffer from hunger; 1 in 5 people in the Rochester area. As an emergency pantry we see what hunger looks and sounds like every day. In the D and C (9/2014) it stated that more than half of the children attending East Irondequoit schools qualify for free and reduced meals. Ask a teacher how being hungry effects a child within the classroom. “School breakfast helps all children. Ask any teacher how one cranky, hungry child can disrupt the whole classroom. Numerous studies have documented that children who receive breakfast at school have better attendance, fewer trips to the principal’s office, better overall health and less likelihood of obesity. They even perform better on standardized tests.”[i]

[1] http://www.feedingamerica.org/take-action/campaigns/hunger-action-month.html

“Proper nutrition is critical to a child’s development. Not having enough of the right kinds of food can have serious implications for a child’s physical and mental health, academic achievement, and future economic prosperity.” [ii]

[1] http://www.feedingamerica.org

There are many things that you can do during Hunger Action Month to “Help us Help others” in our town who sometimes face food insecurity, hunger and other issues. Try any of these ideas:
Wear orange on Thursdays to let people know that you support ICC during Hunger Action month.
Reach out to us and ask questions about ICC and the kind of work we do or go to our website at www.irondequoitcommunitycupboard.org
Ask one of our board members or myself to come and speak at your church, business, class, civic group, etc.
Host a food drive of any size; contact me and I can help get you started.
Your class can choose an item of the month for the school year to donate to ICC.
Take the SNAP challenge to see if you could feed your family on $5 a day for the week.
Write on a paper plate and tell us, your friends and family what you think you could not do on an empty stomach and then take a selfie and put it on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Irondequoit-Community-Cupboard-Inc-180196068672489/
with #HungerActionMonth
Make a donation to ICC and tell everyone on social media WHY you think it is important to help food pantries in your community. And include #We Love theIrondequoitCommunityCupboard

With school starting, this also means our Weekend Backpack Program will be starting soon too. No, when you give at Wegmans, to the Fill the Bus campaign, the food does NOT come directly to us. Indirectly, we may receive something from Foodlink that was donated, but most of the products you donate there is not a direct link to us and the Irondequoit community. If you want to help ICC with OUR weekend backpack program, here are the items we need:

Summer is rough for food pantries and ours is no exception. If you would like to donate either a taxable item, an item we often take for granted and that cannot be purchased with food stamps (SNAP) or one of our regular shelf items, here is current list:

Top 10 taxable items:
toilet paper,
paper towels,
all purpose cleaner,
laundry detergent,
dish soap,
Kleenex,
feminine hygiene products,
shampoo,
toothpaste
deodorant/antiperspirant.

I hope that everyone is well and that you all continue to enjoy what we have left of this nice weather.

Sincerely,

Debbie Evans; President

Sue Reynolds, Vice-President
John Kane, Treasurer
MaryJo Toepfer, Secretary
Cherie Evans, Board Member
Cherie Sutton, Board Member
John Cortinas, Board Member
Lisa Loeser, Board Member

Here is our overdue list of thank yous. We are SO grateful to live in such a generous community that has always been gracious in their support.We would also like to send a special thank you to Don and Nancy Story who each and every week bring us in donations that are always on our Top 10 list. I am blown away by their kindness. They never want any thanks but we are so grateful to them. That being said, every donation matters- Every dollar, can, bag and box of food “Helps us Help others” in our community. Thank you thank you thank you! J


Thank you so much to the following people, organizations, churches, schools and businesses: (unless otherwise noted pounds relate to food)

Anonymous donations at Ridge-Culver Fire Dept 331 pounds
Anonymous donations at the Irondequoit Library 285 pounds
Anonymous donors 10 pounds
Irondequoit Lions Club 31 pounds and $ from their annual rose sale
Durand United Church of Christ 71 pounds
Paula Beaver 33 pounds
Pam Rossi 7 pounds
Susan and Mary Kaye 16 pounds
Troop 60911 49 pounds
Jaurel Mroczek 174 pounds
Paul Illingworth 108 pounds
Irondequoit Post Office Drive 594 pounds
Don and Nancy Story 321 pounds
St Johns Lutheran Church 27 pounds
Helen and Maryrose Galante 7 pounds
Ms Reedy 32 pounds
Lutheran Church of the Resurrection 26 pounds
St Josephat Sunday School 162 pounds
St Kateri 149 pounds
West Irondequoit Teachers Association 136 pounds
Briarwood 19 pounds
Pat Helfer 6 pounds
Geva Theater 100+ pounds of kid friendly foods
Town Hall 14 pounds
Irondequoit United Church of Christ 54 pounds
Helendale Road Elementary 36 pounds
Stephanie Kanis 33 pounds
Briarwood 24 pounds
Daniel Johnson 77 pounds
Temple Emanuel 70 pounds
IHS Service Club 22 pounds of hygiene products plus time on 2 Saturdays to perform clean up tasks around ICC
Iroquois Middle School 6 pounds
Irondequoit Senior Center 19 pounds
Callene Hummel 4 pounds
Northridge Medical 15 pounds