Harckham, Levenberg Hold Food Drive in Ossining

Ossining, NY – New York State Senator Pete Harckham, along with Ossining Town Supervisor and New York Assembly Member-Elect Dana Levenberg, held a food drive on Saturday, December 17, at Ossining High School and collected more than 2,000 pounds of food and cash donations for the Ossining Food Pantry. The pantry helps feed some of the neediest members of the Ossining community, including many seniors.

“The need to fight hunger in our communities continues, with many of our neighbors facing food insecurity,” said Harckham. “While it is important to help keep our local food pantries stocked, we also need to keep raising awareness of this situation. As always, I am thankful to all those who donated and also for the many volunteers who made this a successful event.”

“I am grateful for the participation of everyone who donated at the food drive, and for the work of Senator Harckham and the volunteers who helped Ossining keep its food pantry stocked for the holiday season,” said Levenberg.

This was the 14th food drive Harckham has hosted. In the 13 prior food drives since March 2020—one each in Sleepy Hollow, Mohegan Lake, Bedford, Pleasantville, Carmel, Croton-on-Hudson and Yorktown Heights and two drives in Mount Kisco, Somers and Peekskill—Harckham and volunteers have collected more than 44,000 pounds of food items and over $12,000 in cash donations so far.  

The food drive in Ossining was a “Drive-Thru, Drop Off” event. No food was distributed; it was only collected. Volunteers collected bags and boxes of food from each vehicle, and there was no need for drivers to get out of the vehicles.

The community-supported Ossining Food Pantry operates out of Trinity Episcopal Church, where it started in 1988. Most of the distributed food comes from a local supermarket and Feeding Westchester, as well as from a coupon program for fresh produce from the Ossining Farmers Market.

“This food drive is an incredible help at a very challenging time for our community,” said Doug Gaynor, in-kind gift coordinator for the Ossining Food Pantry. “We have hundreds of food insecure households that we help each week, and the food collected will benefit them all.”