Welcome

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 serve families and individuals in need that reside in the Town of Irondequoit, by providing emergency assistance without bias or prejudice.

"Letter from the President"
(May 2013)

Dear Friends,
May has been a busy month at the Irondequoit Community Cupboard! Numbers of residents in need of assistance continue to climb but we have been working very hard to make sure their needs are being met.

Many of you know that we provide referrals for people who call the ICC in need of assistance but do you know what kind of referrals we provide? We provide referrals to the Department of Social Services, Nutrition Assistance programs, the Veterans Outreach group, Asbury Clothing Closet, Salvation Army, our county legislators; Joe Morelle Jr and Dr Joe Carbone, Lifeline, Faithlink, Eldersource, the YWCA and Battered Women. We refer parents to eligible schools to sign up for our weekend backpack program.

We sometimes get asked, “Why are your hours so limited?”, or, “Why are you never open?” What people don’t realize is that our distribution hours are limited, but my office hours by phone are not. I spend a great deal of time listening and assessing the needs of our residents which is why our office hours by phone are Monday through Thursday from 9am until 4pm and Friday from 9am until noon. We are available for emergency assistance 6 days a week as I check our machine many times a day.

There are several other services that we provide that you may not be aware of. For example, we help look up information and recipes for people recently diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure. We try to provide recipes every month that include only a few ingredients yet use the local produce or heavily donated items that is in abundance at that time (I am always looking for help with this!) We write letters and make calls about legislation that will affect our residents. We also make copies and send faxes for our residents. Last, but not least, we often help with funds for those who need a new birth certificate or social security number.

Over the last couple of months, I have been working with Joe Morelle Jr and Dr Joe Carbone to streamline some of the backlog we have been seeing with the County Department of Social Services and to receive help with many of the complaints that we hear on a daily basis.

Joe Morelle Jr and I have been working with Medical Motors to work out a monthly plan so that senior citizens and people with disabilities that do not have transportation are able to get to the ICC.

I have been writing letters to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to see what we can do to make sure important food stamp dollars are put back into the budget (contact me or go to her website if you would like to help with this too).

We are always happy to be a guest speaker at your functions so that other people can learn more about what we do. We also provide tours at the ICC for your group or organization. In the past two months, we have been out in the community and on Facebook creating more awareness about hunger, food insecurity, poverty and emergency assistance. We participated in a National Hunger Grant sponsored by Walmart (Unfortunately, we did not win). This month, I am being interviewed at Durand Eastman School about poverty. I am also going to be a guest “celebrity reader” at their school at the end of the month. Chris Quinlan brings kids working with the service learning program in West Irondequoit to the ICC to learn about what we do and to help them understand why giving back to your community is so important. And finally we will have representatives at the Irondequoit Public Market again this year to answer questions about our programs.

The Irondequoit Community Cupboard was honored to receive a proclamation from County Legislator Joe Morelle Jr and the Monroe County Legislature for all of our hard work in the community.

We gathered at the annual “Celebrate Irondequoit” event, hosted and sponsored by Jack’s Place, along with the East and West Irondequoit school Foundations last week where we received over 600 pounds of food (Thank you so much for all of your hard work and generosity!) Donations are also accepted through the United Way at this event; our designee number is 2466 if you would like to donate.

Our annual newsletter will be hitting your mailboxes soon (Thank you Pam and Wendy’s of Rochester!) not only does our newsletter provide you with information but this also serves as our annual fund drive. We would love it if you would consider donating to the ICC as we provide a very important service in our community.

Finally, I am beginning to fill volunteer slots for June through August; please contact me if you would like to volunteer with us, or if you wish to continue your regular volunteer dates through the summer. Please understand that we strongly believe this is a community cupboard. We try to fill volunteer slots with as many different people as we can, so if you are looking to volunteer every week or multiple times a week, we are not in need of that type of commitment. We like to share the experience with as many people as possible, so you would only volunteer about once a month.

The Vineyard Church is still looking for volunteers to help with the Community Garden which provides fresh produce to us throughout the summer. Please contact Pastor Jeff Printy to assist with the garden; he can be reached through e-mail at jeff@irondequoitvineyard.com.

As I stated last month, if you are planting your own garden, think about planting an extra row for us. Fresh produce is so healthy and is quite a treat; nothing beats fresh!

Enjoy spring, enjoy proms, graduations, BBQ’s and the beauty of Irondequoit. Enjoy your friends and family, and cherish the good things around you. And remember, we are only a phone call away if you, or someone you know in Irondequoit, is in need of our assistance.

Peace,

Debbie Evans, President
Sue Reynolds, Vice-President
John Kane, Treasurer
Diane McHale Mix, Secretary
Cherie Evans, Board Member
Rev. Sarah Culp, Board Member
MaryJo Toepfer, Board Member
Anne Johnson, Board Member