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Started in 1989 in upstate New York, the food pantry began by feeding just 2 families who were sent to us by the local school district. Word quickly spread, and within 4 years, the number of families had grown to 6,000 (or about 40,000 people per year, half of whom were children) and we were providing about 1.5 million pounds of food annually for their needs. Our catchment area also grew to 8 counties and 2 states, and we also shared excess food with other food pantries and soup kitchens. Week after week and month after month we fed the same folks but there was no change occuring in their lives - we felt we were creating dependency. As a result, we started our agricultural educational programming to provide some measure of economic self-sufficiency and - since many of our families were involved in agriculture or owned land - to demonstrate alternative ways of creating additional on-farm income. The projects on this site are our attempt to effect the root causes of hunger and stem the loss of family farms. So....welcome to our site. We invite you to grab a cup of coffee,
look around and explore what we are doing. If you find an educational
area you are interested in, or if you are already involved in one
of our fields of interest, we would be interested in networking
with you. We have spread some helpful tips throughout the site,
so be sure to visit every page. Note: the tips are not necessarily
in keeping with the theme of each page.
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