“People are hungry year round. People are hungry in Smithtown and we need help. We depend completely on the people in this community. This community is fantastic.” Pat Westlake, executive coordinator of the Smithtown Township Food Pantry.
The Smithtown Township Emergency Food Pantry is located at 90 Edgewater Avenue off of Brooksite Drive in Smithtown. The hours of operation are Monday – Friday between 9am and 12noon. The Pantry is operated and staffed by seven local churches including the Byzantine Church of the Resurrection, First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, Smithtown United Methodist Church, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, St. James Episcopal Church, St. Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church, and St. James Lutheran Church. Each church volunteers to staff the panty with three volunteers each day for one month every seven months.
The Executive Coordinator, Pat Westlake, is a retired teacher. She has been the coordinator for the past three years and has seen the number of hungry and often-homeless families increase. The pantry, whose patrons are mostly from Smithtown, provides food to anyone who is hungry. “There are people living in their cars, some in the woods, right here in Smithtown, who need food which we provide and often they need warm clothing which we cannot provide. Our facility is not large enough to collect clothing. Occasionally, we have been able to help people with clothing needs but our focus is providing food to the hungry.”
The bad economy and high unemployment has impacted all over Suffolk, and Smithtown is no exception. “In the past we allowed people to get food twice in six months. These are difficult times. With some people having really tough times, we now allow people to come in once a week. Our numbers have almost doubled. We now provide food to 120 -130 families a month.”
The holiday season is rapidly approaching which is always a challenge. Four years ago the pantry provided Thanksgiving meals to 40 families. That number increased to 65 in Pat’s first year as the executive coordinator, 85 meals the second year, and 100 meals were provided last year. Last year the Monday before Thanksgiving the pantry was well short of the sixty turkeys they needed to feed the people who had signed up for Thanksgiving meals. Pat didn’t panic. Her saying “He will provide” proved to be prophetic. A call went out to the community and people started to drop off turkeys. As fast as we got food in, people were coming in to take food home. We ended up with enough turkeys to feed everyone who came in and there were 25 turkeys left over that we used for Christmas meals.”
This is the time of year that food pantries across the island are most needed. It is also the time of year when the public begins to hold food drives. It is these food drives that will stock the shelves and bins for the months ahead. The food donated to the pantry last fall allowed the pantry to distribute food to the needy until May of this year. In the spring, donations slow down and monetary donations are used to purchase food.
The pantry has never had to turn anyone away empty handed. The volunteers are creative and substitute foods when they are out of something. What do they need the most? Juice and canned fruit. Click Here for their wish list.
The Smithtown Township Emergency Food Pantry does not receive any grants, federal funding or town funding. The pantry relies 100% on donations received from the Smithtown community.
Does Pat Westlake believe that the needs of the hungry will be met? Pat had this to say. “The Smithtown community has always been generous and even with these challenging times I expect that “He” and the Smithtown Community will continue to meet the needs of the hungry”