Thanksgiving in Tompkins: How you can help give holiday meals to those who need them most

This time of year, families in Tompkins County and throughout the country are reminded to be thankful for the food on their tables, while at the same time, many leave fresh food to go to waste.

Still, there are plenty of ways to get a holiday meal this time of year if you're in need of one, and even more ways to donate food to someone who's hungry.

Collecting donations

The Food Bank of Central New York uses its Syracuse facility — one of the largest in the state, which is planned to expand by over 30,000 feet before the end of 2027 — to collect food donations and distribute more than 18.6 million pounds of food to the hungry each year.

The organization maintains a Food Finder map of New York on its website, flagging hundreds of food distribution sites like pantries, churches and soup kitchens throughout the state and providing users with all of the information they'd need to contact the pantry or make it to the next local distribution.

The food bank doesn't quite extend its reach to places like Ithaca, or into the Southern Tier, which has its own, similarly backed food finding resources at foodbankst.org.

You can donate funds to the banks through their websites, which states that a $10 donation would help provide 30 meals for individuals and families struggling to find food.

Finding friendship, rescuing fresh food

The volunteer-run non-profit Friendship Donations Network “rescues” food which would otherwise be thrown away from stores and farms in Tompkins County and redistributes throughout the community to food pantries and people in need.

The group serves more than 2,000 people a week and diverting over 1,000 lbs. of fresh food from landfills every day.

“FDN works year-round and the bulk of what we handle are donations from local grocery stores, farmers, and other retail outlets,” FDN coordinator Meaghan Sheehan Rosen said. “We also serve as a resource for community members that have food that would otherwise be at risk of going to waste that’s still perfectly good. We can often help make the connection with their local food programs that can help get that food to people.”

Depending on where people are located, FDN tries to connect them to nearby pantries to donate their food directly, Rosen said, and emphasized that staying “hyper-local” keeps the food fresher and more nutritious.

Much of that food, be it from a misplaced produce order from Wegmans or an overbought shipment of fruit from participating restaurants, goes to pantries throughout the county.

“FDN partners with most of the traditional hunger relief type organizations like Loaves & Fishes, the Salvation army and the whole network of food pantries that exists in pretty much every town or village but … we also partner with a whole bunch of other community organizations that are not necessarily directly food related but they have relationships with people who we’re able to share food with like OAR (Opportunities, Alternatives and Resources), Reach Medical the Tompkins County PROS (Personalized Recovery Oriented Services) program, and dozens like them.”

How the meals meet hungry mouths in Ithaca

Both Foodbankst.org and the Tompkins Cortland Human Services Coalition provide a list of Tompkins County food pantry schedules and a map of county pantries on their websites.

Tompkins County Mutual Aid has set up over 30 blue food sharing cabinets throughout the county, where anyone who’d like to donate food can leave their shelf stable goods, and those in need can open the cabinet and pick up lunch anonymously, without the need for signups.

The non-profit Loaves & Fishes of Tompkins County serves over 4,200 free meals each month to anyone who needs them. The organization keeps a list of recommended items for donation on their website, including oils, vinegars and spices alongside baseball caps, terry washcloths and ceramic mugs.

Loaves & Fishes is almost always looking for volunteers. Its current team of volunteer’s clocks in about 1,250 hours per month at St. John's Episcopal Church on North Cayuga Street.

Volunteer shifts are available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursday, from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. and 4:45 to 7:45 p.m.

To sign up and for more information, email info@loaves.org or call 607-272-5457.

If you are struggling to purchase food, you may qualify for state programs that could help pay for it, like food stamps or WIC.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Thanksgiving dinner: How you can help provide for families in need