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Title
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Kathy Chase, December 13, 2021
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interviewee
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Kathy Chase
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interviewer
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Desiree Winiarski
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Date
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2021-13-12
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Subject
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Cooperstown Food Pantry
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Feeding America
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Food Insecurity
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Backpack Program
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Leo Club
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Description
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Kathy Chase was born on July 20, 1953 in New York, New York. Growing up Kathy was surrounded by a family that valued having an active role in their community.
After moving her family to Cooperstown, New York, Kathy became involved in Meal on Wheels. This volunteer work ultimately led Kathy to pick up shifts at the Cooperstown Food Pantry. Kathy now runs the food pantry's Backpack Program, along with other programs relating to food insecurity, including Empty Bowls.
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Transcription
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KC = Kathy Chase
DW = Desiree Winiarski
[START OF TRACK 1, 0:00]
DW:
This is Desiree Winarski at Kathy Chase's house on November 19th, 2021 for the CGP Oral History Project. Would you like to tell me your full name?
KC:
Yes. I am Kathleen Houlihan Chase. Otherwise known as Kathy [laughing].
DW:
[laughing] And where did you grow up, Kathy?
KC:
I grew up on Long Island. I was born in New York City, myself, my brother, and my sister. Then my parents moved to the suburbs on Long Island. I come from a family of seven kids. I have an older brother and I am the first girl and I have five younger sisters.
DW:
Big family. Were you ever exposed to community resources like a food pantry when you were growing up?
KC:
No, I myself was not. My mom was a big volunteer, and we did a lot of work around our church and so she was always helping others, which is probably where I got that idea that that was a good role model.
DW:
Tell me a little bit more about seeing your mom volunteering.
KC:
Yeah, she was an at-home mom, obviously raising seven kids. She worked,
it's so funny to say that now, but it was called an over 50 club of our church, which sounds like very young to me now. But she would drive people to the center. She did a lot of things, like they'd have craft fairs at the holidays, always raising money for the church, but always visiting people if they needed a ride for a doctor's appointment. Things like that was after the kids were in school. There's quite a gap. I'm 15 years older than my youngest sister, and she unfortunately died at a young age. She was only 53, but up until that time in her mid-to-late 40s she was doing all those kinds of things which was fabulous.
DW:
That's amazing. What made you want to be a nurse?
KC:
You know it's one of those things. I think back in my day, you either wanted to be a teacher, wanted to be a nurse; it just seemed like we were tracked much more than your generation today. But I think I've always kind of been a caretaker. After my mom passed, I was a pretty big caretaker for my younger siblings. I used to work in a nursing home during college, so I've always liked caring for people so it kind of was a natural fit, I would say.
DW:
Why did you and your husband decide to move your family to Cooperstown?
KC:
We both grew up in the same town on Long Island. We didn't meet until way after college. I guess because of his job we could really live anywhere, because when he went out to work, he was a Merchant Marine. He would get a job and we took him to the airport and off to the ship wherever that was. I love Long Island; we had bought our first home when we got married down there. As I said, most of my family lives there but we wanted to get away from the busyness, a busy street. I had good friends in Cooperstown, or I never would have chosen this, and I probably never would have moved if I didn't have a friend that I grew up with [who lived here]. We would visit here all the time when he was home. I said that I would look in Cooperstown, so we did, and it was just dumb luck that we fell into this beautiful home on the lake. We had wonderful neighbors. That was in 1984, when I had an almost three-year-old and a one-year-old when we moved here. And it's been a great town to raise a family in, to raise children in. And as a result, my family when they come to visit, they stay with us, so actually we grew closer in a lot of ways to friends from Long Island because who doesn't like to come up to Cooperstown and visit and be on the lake in the summer. So, we love it.
DW:
Tell me a little bit about what the community was like when you moved.
KC:
I always find this is a very interesting community. I always found that you had your farmers, you have your doctors, you have people that work for the county, or as schoolteachers. I just found it a very nice mix. In my day when I first moved here, you couldn't tell a doctor from a farmer, which is what I liked about it. I didn't really see a class system here. Of course, we were raising children then, so it's easy to meet people. We got involved in the schools and preschool; I found it a very welcoming community. We originally got involved in our church, St. Mary's in town where I met a lot of people. We are very fortunate to have in this rural little spot out here on the lake, there were three other families with similar children, ages so we would carpool. [The] kids [would] play together and we [would get] together for potlucks, so we've really had a very nice community. Raising kids here has been great, but I find this a very welcoming [place], variety of interest, and that's only changed over the years with the opera coming in, the ball [park?]. I mean we have our summer tourists. It's changed over the years, but still, I don't see myself living anywhere else.
DW:
Awesome. What brought you to volunteering at the food pantry?
KC:
That's interesting, too [laughing]. I was thinking back, getting ready for this, and I think I've always been involved in food my whole life, [laughing] helping with food. When I first moved here it was the church, and I was always involved in the church dinners and organizing the food and cooking the food. Then I used to deliver the Meals on Wheels when my kids were little, that was something I could do as a volunteer. You pick up the food, you deliver it, you meet a lot of little older people, which was great. And then somehow, I got asked to help with the delivery day. No, I know, originally, I got a call from Ellen St. John who started the food pantry probably back in the [19]70s. As I say, I came in [19]84. I don't know how I met her, but somehow, I was asked to go down. Could I go down and open up the food pantry? Which was a closet in the police department and let [in] some people who needed food. Then she started getting me to pick up food, because she was a one-man show, and she moved over to the church. I would pick up the food that came in, I guess on the truck; I didn't know what I was doing at this point. Somehow, I don't know, I would take the van and my husband was like, "You're going to kill the axle on our car". But I would load van with all of the food and bring it up to the pantry. Then I wasn't involved for a little while; I started working again. I got asked to help on delivery day which meant you had to take, 10,000 pounds of food from the upstairs truck to the basement, and we had a line of people. Then I started hearing about the backpack program; they were looking for someone to take that over, and I thought I could do that, so each little thing led to me getting more and more involved. I started when I came to do delivery. Then I said, "oh, I'll start doing the backpack program." I had a couple of volunteers, which has been a great program. Then they asked, "oh would you like to take a regular shift upstairs?" [So I said] "eh, why not?" I'll take it on the day I do backpacks. Of course I love doing that. I was nervous in the beginning, [about] interviewing people and serving people, but you get used to everything very quickly. I don't know one thing led to another, now I do it just fine. I was retired so I could spend every day down there and do an hour here and an hour there. It's purposeful, I know what I'm doing. I can go behind the scenes and get stock or move freezer food. The people are great. There's so many volunteers and I met so many interesting people just filling in on different shifts. It's just purposeful work and I'm glad I can do it.
DW:
Do you go down every day?
KC:
I probably go down at least four days a week, I would say, and pop in. I'm on my regular shift on Friday mornings and I do backpacks Thursday afternoons. My daughter and I a lot of times will go down on Sunday and we'll go through the refrigerators, get rid of anything that's produce that needs to go. We will get organized for Monday. My grandkids help me make snack packs, and I bring them down to the basement. I've got the keys to the kingdom so I can go in and get stuff done. During COVID thank God for the food pantry because it was a safe place. We stayed open, nobody got COVID that was working. We stayed in the pantry, and it gave me something to do where we really weren't going and doing anything else the last two years.
DW:
Right?
KC:
There's plenty to do there.
DW:
Did you see an increase of traffic?
KC:
Interesting enough, we found a decrease and when we'd asked clients, we'd see them, they said "well, the stimulus." They weren't coming out of their homes; they weren't going for regular appointments. Many times, people would tie an appointment at Bassett [Hospital], then they'd stop by and pick up their food. But they also, which I think is great and hope it does continue, the SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits for families, including every child, got an increase in that. That little bit of extra per month keeps them from needing a food bank. We welcome everybody but people generally they don't want to use a food pantry if they don't have to. We always encourage people, if you just need to get the meat, come see us, you can say no thank you to anything you do not need. But they with the extra money were able to go [to the grocery store], which is how it should work in this country. They can go and buy the milk and the eggs and the things they need. And we're seeing a little tick up now; you figure unemployment benefits have ended, we'll see what happens with SNAP going forward, and I think the price of oil and gas is going to affect people's budgets through the winter. November is always our busiest month, and we have been busy the last two weeks. But that's typical, so we'll see after the holidays where it goes. When we saw those food lines down in Texas in places, I thought, "Oh my gosh, are we going to see that?" We did not, and we stayed open throughout. We were open less days in the beginning of the pandemic, but still three days, and now we're open six days a week. And we serve the clients from outside, they call in, so it's safe for the volunteers, but we did not see an increase. But we're prepared if we do.
DW:
Yeah, that's interesting because I was going to ask if like school closures and not having those lunches available would affect it at all.
KC:
Well, and that was interesting too, because I could see the writing on the wall coming. We were hearing that maybe school was going to close for two weeks. It was March 13th and I kind of got wind of that, so I put a note in all the backpacks on the thirteenth, which ended up being the last day of school, and I said "Get in touch with me." It had my email and my contact information, and we will go on a monthly box program, so we didn't skip a beat. We immediately went to a monthly program and half of the kids partook. Other parents did not, [saying] "We will be OK and if we need it we'll come back." We do that [monthly], but the school also delivered meals out to the kids that needed it or they could come by school. Every day it was at a certain time of day, for breakfast and lunch. From what I understood at the school, they were mandated by the government to do that, so they did do that. The staff was in and you could pick up your sandwich or whatever they provided for breakfast and lunch. And then we do a summer box program for kids. We started that probably 6-7 years ago. What do the kids do in the summer that get food in the winter, so we've been doing that for a long time now.
DW:
Is there any sort of promotion at all through the school about the backpack program?
KC:
The letter goes out to all the kids. [These services] try to be somewhat confidential, but in the elementary school, the counselors take care of all that paperwork. There's a letter that goes out in all kids' backpacks and that's the way they let people know about the program or if you would like to sponsor a backpack. There are people that are fortunate that like to donate towards it. And they will [sponsor a backpack]. Behind-the-scenes teachers are taught about what a child who is maybe food insecure looks like. Maybe they're sleeping in class a lot, or the signs of maybe they're not getting enough food. The nurses and doctor at the school would know that too, so anybody can refer [a child]. In fact, a child can refer themselves. There are enough backpacks circulating that go home that I think most people understand what it is. We started with 20 and are up to 33 now, so as soon as you see them start going home you start getting referrals and we can add as many kids as needed, so we're very fortunate to have the funding.
DW:
OK, tell me a little bit more about the backpack program.
KC:
That is a great program. Audrey Murray, who is a former director, president of our board, and a full-time volunteer still, she must have taken the reins from Ellen St. John. I think backpacks were starting to become popular in our area [around] I think 2010 we started, and I probably got involved with that in 2012, I would say. Our regional food bank is in Latham, which is outside of Albany, which is where we purchase all our food, that's Feeding America. So how it works is most schools will go there, get the food weekly in the areas. Of course, we can't do that living an hour and a half away, so she must have talked to them about starting a monthly delivery. It used to be in Oneonta, now it comes to Tops where we meet the truck, and then Bruce Hall [Home Center] donates their truck every month, it gets loaded and they come to the pantry where we offload. She goes "Why can't we get a backpack delivery on that same truck?" So that started, and thus it expanded to all the other schools in the area. Little by little, I think they're all on board now with backpack. So we get the food, a monthly supply and I get a menu from Feeding America that I'm supposed to follow each week, what goes in the backpack. You know it's your protein, grains, fruit, a variety of what you would eat over the weekend for those meals. That really is how it began to filter out to the rural areas, which is fabulous because Milford does it, Richfield does it, I think all the surrounding schools do [this program]. And we have something called school-based health clinics here in our schools, which is Bassett. So, there's somebody from Bassett that works at the school. So, if children are sick, even if they're home and they have, say, strep throat or something they call and they go to the health clinic. So, like my daughter will take her kids right to school for a checkup rather than having to get to the clinic. Well, they also watch the kids' weights, they do their physicals, and one of the pediatricians was saying "If I start seeing a kid losing weight that is a problem." He [the pediatrician] knew we did backpacks and so he started referring other schools to Cooperstown as a model. How do you get it started in your school? Our food is housed in the food pantry, comes to us. The school or the Leo Club comes over to me every Thursday; they pack the bags, they're only numbered, they don't know who the kids are, and they bring it back to the school and the teachers then distribute it to the kids. And the high school just grabs them at the nurse's office on the way out on Friday so that nobody knows any difference, so it's really kind of well-orchestrated and this model works quite well. I'm glad they're back on weekly packs, because it's been almost two years that they were on monthly, a year and a half. I have a few kids that are choosing to be home schooled if there are medical reasons in the house where they don't want them in school, so those I'm happy to keep them on monthly if they want. And I have seven actually doing that right now, so we go wherever you need, we get the food to you.
DW:
What is the difference between the monthly and weekly backpacks?
KC:
What I would do there rather than trying to pack up these boxes every week, we
get the food monthly, so during COVID we just decided OK, we'll put our energy into it once a month. If somebody for whatever reason would have needed it in between, we could [have done that]. But we gave them the same amount of food, just in a big banana box. So, they'd get two jars of peanut butter instead of one every other week, so they'd get the same thing. The other good thing is, during COVID since they were picking it up at the pantry, they offered from Feeding America frozen meats for the kids, cheeses, dairy; what you can't put in the backpack that sits at school overnight, so they actually got better food in the boxes.
DW:
OK.
KC:
Another thing we gave them, which is great—this started a few years ago—is we purchased through Feeding America at a little bit of a discount, cards that are good for a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. So every other week they give each child, if you have four kids each child gets one, you get a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. Now we just packed up the bags for the holiday week because they only have school Monday, Tuesday, so they won't get another pack this week. But I stuck in an extra egg [card] so they got two dozen eggs and they got a gallon of milk. You have to be careful with the weight. I would have loved to have put tons more food in, but you know they have to be able to carry them home. But we put a big box of cereal in and we put out a few extra [cans of] tuna in. Being housed in a pantry, we can order more food, better than probably what they pick up weekly in Albany because it's a set menu, but we enhance the menu here since we're in the pantry, let's put it that way.
DW:
OK, and how does that change, if at all during the holidays? Do you put in different things or extra?
KC:
We try to put in extra keeping mindful of the weight and that's when I had the brainstorm that I did. Why don't we give them extra eggs? It's a card. That's it. That's another dozen eggs for the week, that's fantastic. We do try to throw in a few extra things that are lightweight: tuna, some extra granola bars, we put on the big box of cereal, but we had happened to have pouches of stew that was equal to two cans, so we try to really load them with protein more than anything in our packs, which is good.
DW:
OK, I know a few food pantries where I'm from in this time of year, they get donations with turkeys and stuff and hams for the holiday seasons. Is that something that you guys do as well?
KC:
At the pantry right now they'll either get a turkey if we have one in, or they are offered a gift card to Price Chopper for $10, and at .49 a pound turkeys are, they can get a turkey. That spurred me, we also decided to give every backpack family [a card]. Each family - if you had four kids you still got one card - they all got a ten dollar card that had a nice note about you can buy whatever you wanted, but the purpose was that it would help to buy the turkey but it would be good for any groceries for Price Chopper. So that went in yesterday's backpacks and that's the first time we've done that, so I thought that was nice. They get a little treat every week; they get some kind of a sweet in the backpack, but we mainly try like before Christmas we will put extra food in there.
DW:
And how do you deal with any dietary restrictions that kids have?
KC:
We have never been asked that. If they had a peanut allergy, there's just too many things [that could have come into contact with what they're allergic to]. We have never had a kid that actually has said that and we probably couldn't really the way the food comes, take care of that. Like if you come to the pantry as a family then you could say no thank you to the things that wouldn't be good, and we do have some gluten-free products there, so I would steer them to becoming more of a pantry user for that child. Because we don't monitor everything and everything has got nuts or wheat in it, so the menu that comes from Feeding America would probably not be good for any kids with special needs. We actually haven't ever been asked that before. I think about that but I think anybody with a real special diet kid, they wouldn't take a backpack. God forbid the kid ate something they shouldn't.
DW:
Right, and what about like vegetarian families?
KC:
Again that's never been a thing with the backpack. If there was a question I would steer them to the pantry because we do have vegetarian options. They would all be frozen and refrigerated, like tofu and we have a lot of the "I can't believe it's not meat," and the plant-based burgers that they could get at the pantry. If I was to be asked that by a family - and the counselors at school know what we have - so I think they would go use the pantry. Basically, it couldn't be a weekly backpack in that case.
DW:
OK and you said that you expand upon the menu a little bit, do you have any say over the overall menu or do you get a set?
KC:
We do. We get the set menu from Feeding America; imagine their budget and what comes in and they're dealing with over 7,000 kids from a couple hundred schools between here and Latham. A lot in the Albany area probably, so that's what comes into the warehouse. In fact when we do our own ordering it's, OK what's on the list today; it could be something new tomorrow, but our order is closed. A lot of it is donated, and a lot of what you see in the school breakfast is a little too sugary for my taste, so that's why I told them this month, because we have a funding line at the pantry, "Don't send me any breakfast items." But then again I ordered on our line a cereal that's like a wheat cereal or sometimes a raisin bran or something like that. We have the luxury, since we have an extra money line item in our budget, we can get into the order and order specifically for backpack. We will use their menu as a guide but if it's something that's really maybe too sugary I'll call it the snack that week and substitute it for something else.
DW:
OK
KC:
We probably are one of a few schools that gets all this since we're housed in the pantry.
DW:
Right and do you see any community involvement from any stores or business that donate?
KC:
You see a lot of the church[es], a lot of people know what backpack is, a lot of people donate money. I write the thank-you notes when it comes and usually have a picture of what the packs look like. They'll send me the name and address to send a thank you when a donation comes in. We have a grant in town that supports us quite a bit every year. The Episcopal church does an alternate Christmas Day crawl, so they'll have all kinds of nonprofits represented in the room, backpack is one of them, so I'll start getting assistance this time of year. $50 to help with the backpacks or I had someone from the school, a parent who got the letter, she sent $200 which kind of sponsors the kid for the whole year, so people are very generous. The ambulance is getting ready to do a big food drive; they started this a few years ago. They'll be outside of Price Chopper on December 11th, and our past director she started working with the ambulance company. She'd say "Let me give you a specific list of what we need in the pantry rather than helter skelter." And a lot of it will be backpack stuff; it'll be peanut butter, it'll be tuna, so I'll have extra to throw in the packs from all of that. And they'll do a lot of snack pack things for us too, like granola bars and you know things like that. So between the food drives in the town, there's a lot of that going on this time of year. Specifically they'll ask for backpack things at a lot of them. Whenever we've got the backpack on display at a fair or something like that we pack a pack and we put a note about what it is and there's good awareness that it's going on I think in this community, and so people are very generous.
DW:
It's really cool.
KC:
It's really a great program. The council was just asking about a week ago, "Is there a limit? Can we add a few more kids?" We never say no, and that's how I write my thank-you notes. Thanks to your generosity we've never had to say no to a child in this school district; some schools do. They can't do it every week.
DW:
And how did you find out about this opportunity?
KC:
I guess mainly by just volunteering at the food pantry then hearing they were looking for someone to take over the backpack because that person was doing too many other jobs at the pantry and so I did. It was getting involved at the pantry that got me involved in the backpack. Some schools it might actually be housed right in the school. I think the schools of Oneonta, they pick it up so they must have parent or staff volunteers that pack up the bags and it stays right in school. So you would hear about it in your school probably if they needed volunteers. But we get it through all the food pantry volunteers any help I need with it, and I have a regular person that we coordinate with and coordinate with the school so.
DW:
And what brought you to the food pantry in the first place?
KC:
I don't know how I met Ellen St. John a million years ago, [laughing] and she asked me to go up with her to the police [department]. Once you get involved with delivery, I guess my neighbor was helping, asked "You want to come help" and that was how you get introduced. You just hook somebody in, and you're there for life.
DW:
I know you said that you volunteered when you lived in Long Island was that at a food pantry as well?
KC:
No, I think mainly when I was down there, I'm trying to think what I was doing, it was so long ago. I was really just a new mother then, but it really would have been just through my mom. Then I went off to college; I wasn't really doing anything like community service like this back in the day there and really went right off to nursing school. I wasn't [volunteering] until I came here, and I had young children. Figuring out what else could I do because I wasn't working. I was a stay-at-home mom. I was lucky enough to be home and I heard about Meals on Wheels so that's when I started volunteering again as an adult I would say.
DW:
OK and tell me about how your career may have led to you wanting to do work like in food pantries?
KC:
Well, I don't know if it would have necessarily led to a food pantry because just caring, caring for people [is what I was interested in]. I worked in a nursing home for many years and I love working with the elderly. I was a nurse's aide there. You're feeding people all the time, spoon feeding people in that situation. But I would say I was not aware of food insecurity growing up. I'm very blessed, I came from a big family, [and we] probably didn't have a lot of extra money, but we had a meal put on the table every night. Wasn't I fortunate? And I didn't know anybody that was food insecure. Now I think we're much more aware of things, people are much more open about things. Nobody wants to be food insecure of course so we're very careful of that, but I think COVID has brought the issue to the forefront in a lot more people's minds, [especially] when they saw those lines down in Texas. When I became a public health nurse and started visiting patients in the community I became much more aware in this area of the haves and the have nots. Going in some very modest homes, trailer parks, things like that, and I always said I met the nicest people in the poorest conditions, proud people living. A lot of seniors living on a tight budget, just to pay for their oil was difficult. I guess Meals on Wheels was part of that program that seniors would always have those delivered back in the day. Public health opened my eyes to a whole different side of society I would say.
DW:
What problems emotional or logistical have you had with the backpack program?
KC:
It really runs very smoothly. We're so fortunate again because funding would probably be a big problem for any group and we are so blessed with funding. As in your own life, if you don't have to worry about paying your bills [things are easier]. With this program I can always add people so I haven't had any of those challenges, which I would imagine would be the biggest challenge. The school sometimes, and I shouldn't and don't know the particulars, they'll be working once in a while with a family that they don't want to accept it yet they know the kids need it. Eventually then somebody may get put on backpack. I got a nice rapport going the last couple of years with some of the regular families because they came to me and picked it up, so we'd get chatting as I met them. I encouraged them if they weren't already using the pantry to go ahead and do that, so that was kind of a very nice bonus of starting the monthly program in the summer. Then they had to give me their name and address, which they did if they wanted to belong, and I email them once a month asking which day you want to pick it up and we would meet so it's not as anonymous. I know the parents more than the kids that come pick up the food that way, so that has been a good connection. I think I've been able to encourage a few people to start using the pantry that maybe weren't. I said, "Give it a shot" which is good. But we haven't had any major [issues]. I don't know what the issues say at the schools are, I'm not supposed to know. But there is behind-the-scenes work of course, if somebody needs food to get it to them and staff to be aware of that problem too; luckily, at school they do get fed breakfast and lunch, the kids, but we don't know what's at home.
DW:
And do you feel like it makes a big impact in the kids in the lives of the kids that utilize the project?
KC:
I think it does. The guidance counselor one time a few years ago; she'll talk to the parents [because] you have to get parental permission for the kids to go on [the backpack program]. She said you never know who needs food and doesn't. A child came into her and asked, "Could I get the backpack?" She said, "Let me call mom", and she's thinking does this kid need a backpack? They always look perfect in school, well-dressed, and of course she did [need the backpack]. She called mom and the mom said you know that would just help tremendously, that little extra money I wouldn't have to spend on weekend food I could do whatever [with] or get something for the child. So she said that made such an impact on her and it took her sharing that with us to realize we don't know what's going on and aren't we lucky that this child was competent enough to go in and ask the guidance counselor to take the pack. So you know it makes an impact, and this same guidance counselor delivered food to a family one time. She just retired this gal. She was giving the kid a ride home and she had her backpack and she said "Oh Mrs. [unclear] come on in. This is what I do. I take my backpack and I take all the food out and I just look at it all and I put it away. This is my food for the weekend." And she said it was just so eye-opening for her and for us to hear those stories makes you realize why you're doing this. My sister is a social worker out in Vegas and they're part of where kids get removed from homes for all kinds of reasons and she said those
[START OF TRACK 2, 0:30]
folks will interview kids and ask "What did you eat this weekend?" and they'll go "Whatever was in my bag," meaning a backpack program out there. She actually just relayed that story to me recently since I know how important those backpacks are. That could be the only thing in the house. We don't know.
DW:
How many children do you see consistently return?
KC:
The highest number we had quite a few years ago was 48, which was a lot of kids. Generally we're around 36, and in the summer it seems to be around 20 because lot of kids are coming and going and the parents say "No, we're OK." I had one person come back on the middle of the summer. They have my email then so they will [contact me]. At the pantry now that we have Mary Kate [Kenney] on board all the time, if she was to see a family, maybe with kids struggling, we could always add them. We're hoping to expand the summer box program a little more this summer with being mindful of what big families are coming now. Are they having trouble in the summer? We'll figure that out, maybe offer more because we just got a big grant from one of the towns for specifically backpack, and we said, "Well, this is what we'd like to try to do with it," and then we'll report back if we're able to, I'm sure we'll have success doing that.
DW:
Would you say it's mostly younger kids or a mix?
KC:
Since Head Start is in the building, we offer it to Head Start in our school. There's five children in Head Start right now, and then we go right on through high school. I probably have nine over at the high school and I have [around] 20 over at the elementary school, I have seven home on boxes. We'll see it from Head Start right through senior year of high school. Every grade has got some kids in, so that's good. You know people know about this.
DW:
And tell me a little bit about Head Start.
KC:
Head Start, I don't know a heck of a lot about it, except that it is a preschool program. I think the county actually runs it, but they have a classroom in the [Cooperstown] elementary school. When that started with Ellen St. John, Head Start used to be in the Presbyterian Church I believe where the pantry is now. And she said when we started backpacks, "Why don't you offer it to Head Start?" They're mostly kids that are coming from lower income, so we did. They don't communicate any information with me, they just let the guidance counselor know [who needs the assistance]. Everything is so private with them as it should be. Recently we just added one kid, so we're up to five now. They only have 11 [kids involved in Head Start] in the building, so we said "Just let us know if somebody decides they want to add it." Those are kids that are three to five [years old]. I believe they come into the program at three. They would be early intervention prior to that. I think it's county funded, but for some reason they got space in the school. We don't have a pre-K here, which we hope eventually everybody gets universal pre-K. But they're in the building, and then if they come on into first grade and kindergarten the next year, they will remain on [the program]. In the beginning there were probably more kids in the elementary school and as they graduate on we do see the numbers stay higher because they get used to the idea. In the first few years it has to catch on.
DW:
Right
KC:
And staff has to get used to it.
DW:
Right, would you like to see more partnership between other programs like that?
KC:
Well, this is kind of school based, but I suppose we don't have any feeding programs here in summer like as far as lunch goes, where if you go down to Oneonta they have a feeding program, they used to pre COVID, like a peanut butter and jelly kind of thing. But our big problem here is logistics. When you drove up here, this is the end of the Cooperstown school district, right behind my house, but I could drive a half hour to the other end of it down in Milford, I could take a half hour drive from here to Hartwick, so it's gigantic. And there's no public transit to get people to a feeding program like that, so someday down the line that may be something [we could do] if we ever had a better mass transit system here. But we don't, so that is always a problem I see. I think right now since the backpack [program] is really a school program, I think we're doing pretty good with the partnership within the school. And people cooperate great with us. This really works; it works extremely smooth.
DW:
Do you think there is room for a program like the backpack program to be put in place for adults or elderly people?
KC:
That's a good point. I know that there's a Senior Center now in Cooperstown at the Catholic Church that started in the last couple of years, and they actually advertise in the paper every week. You see seniors needing food, or delivery of food, or [needing someone to] pick up your groceries. Whether it be shop for you or get it from the food pantry. They're always offering to help, I know with our board, we're trying to reach out in a lot of new directions with our new director too. Always trying to increase finding people in need, so I know that they [our board] had talked to them [the Senior Center], or she [Senior Center director] has talked to us. People can pick up food for a family as long as the family registers with us and says, "OK, Kathy Chase is picking up for me, no problem." They would still call the order in; Kathy Chase would come pick it up. There are those kinds of partnerships. We just put someone on our board now who is from the Office of the Aging and she's fantastic, so I think that's going to help us. There's not a lot of people out there waiting for food that she knows of, which I thought was interesting. I think she'll be much more aware of the senior population, and what's going on in the county. I think there's always room for growth, unfortunately, in the food insecurity department; we wish there wasn't. We had our first paid director with Stacy, I think it was in the last eight years, I don't know how many years it is now. And she had a social service background, so she brought a lot of new things to the table and then she got a job somewhere else, moved on. And that's the kind of job you probably don't stay in forever. And then our next director just moved away, and we got Mary Kate, who's just fabulous. Everybody just brings something new to the table, and the board is going in new directions now. I think, some of these things we are talking about may start to happen, those are future goals for sure.
DW:
OK, and you said like bringing in workers and stuff how is the volunteering side of that?
KC:
That's always an issue trying to find volunteers. During COVID what we did because people were afraid to come out, we said "Who will stay on?" We became a little unit. My husband, myself, a good friend of mine, we said "We will work every Friday." We kept the same shift; we worked eight hours straight on Fridays, so we were kind of our own little bubble, very careful and we did that. All of our volunteers went back to rest while this was happening. And it's trouble getting people to come back on now. We're back up, we're open six days a week, but I think that we have a bit of a shortage of volunteers right now and we're always out reaching for that. We can always use more subs. But we're still staffing the place six days a week, so it's pretty good. I am also in charge of getting the -we call ourselves the Mules - to help with delivery, like next Tuesday's delivery. I am the one that sends out the email, to be there at 10:30 for delivery. And then we're always in that group, and if somebody new retires we get their name and number. If you know me, I'm sorry you get asked to do a lot [laughing].
DW:
So it's mostly word of mouth?
KC:
I think it is yeah, and I think that's the beauty of when you get involved. You either do or don't like this kind of work, like any volunteer work right, and I love it, obviously.
DW:
Yes. My Aunt Sarah does the Meals on Wheels and she does the same thing where she recruits people and it's just word of mouth.
KC:
Yup, and you get so much more than you give. I remember just visiting, I'd bring my little toddler with me, and they would always have a little cookie ready for Amanda. First of all, you're checking on them to make sure they're ok. Of course you never leave a meal at the door. If they're not home, you call right in, that's a great check on the senior population. I became friends with all of them and it takes you half the day to do the meals. But, that's why I did it.
DW:
Right? Have you ever considered maybe putting an ad the paper calling for volunteers?
KC:
Yes, and we do that. There's a gal who does a lot of the media outreach for us. And yes, you will see it. I don't get the daily paper anymore, but there's a section in our papers that has [information on] where to volunteer, and I believe we're always under [that section]. I haven't asked Mary Kate lately how much people have been responding to that. I don't know what the flow is, if we're getting more volunteers or not, but we've had a few, but then people are always leaving. We get a lot of people leave for the winter, so we get our snowbirds. We need to fill in for them. I don't know what the flow is right now. There have been some new volunteers, but you always could use more. We need strong people, especially for delivery.
DW:
Right and have you considered utilizing social media at all?
KC:
We do now. I don't do any of that, but Mary Kate is very social media savvy being a young person. And the same gal who is a volunteer, she worked for one of the media companies. She does a lot of that and they do have a Facebook page, and she utilizes that if anything changes, or if all of a sudden we have a truck come by here because their load got rejected say at Walmart. [Let's say they] have a truckload of oranges, for whatever reason get rejected; they ask "Can you take them?" So we'll blast out [on Facebook], come and get them when something like that happens. And she'll change the hours and anything new that's happening. Remind people they can come weekly for bread and produce, [letting people know] it doesn't have to be monthly; they can come in between [visits] for that. They are utilizing [social media] more and more. I think that everybody except me uses Facebook and social media. That's all been picking up in the last few years as it should, obviously.
DW:
Good, good.
KC:
It is good.
DW:
OK, so going back to the children - for the backpack program, what is your relationship like with the kids that come in? Do you get to see them?
KC:
No, so I shouldn't even know who they are technically. I work with the Leo Club, the kids in high school who come [to help]. Every pack has a number on it, so I'm just checking the numbers. There's a gal at the school I communicate with, the aid who'll make sure they're there. If all of a sudden one pack doesn't come back for a few weeks of school we'll check. Or if I notice something, I'll say, "Oh, you know what, I'm missing [pack number] two for three weeks in a row," we'll check on that or whatever. So it's anonymous that way. I do actually, because of the summer program, I do know a lot [of the families], but I don't know what their number is related to the pack this time of year. The Leo's reported to me yesterday when they went to the high school nurse's office to pick up the empties, they said number six was full so they didn't bring it over. So I wrote to the nurse this morning and I said FYI, I don't know why he [the school nurse?] didn't notice it and call him down, maybe they've been absent all week or in quarantine. I just said call number six down today and just find out if they're still on the program. I haven't heard from him [the school nurse]. I'm always aware of what's coming back each week so that works out good.
DW:
OK.
KC:
At the elementary school they've brought them back every week; I haven't had absences. At the high school sometimes they're not as good [about bringing the packs back]. But for the most part they're pretty darn good.
DW:
Is that to just protect privacy or to make the families more comfortable?
KC:
Yeah, that is supposed to be all private as far as the school goes. With the kids, the counselor is the one who knows who they are by name, and we know them by number. We don't want the Leo's knowing who these kids in high school are that are getting the packs. They're the ones who bring them back to the school, so we all just [say] "OK I'm missing number three." Yesterday I knew which packs to put the cards in because I knew these three kids are siblings, [ex.] 2 & 4. I put in one of those [cards], so we know that way. [Know which kids are related through number association only]
DW:
OK, and tell me about the Leo program. Is that?
KC:
That's a part of the Lions Club, which is nationwide. The Lions Club, they're service oriented, so the young group of that is called the Leo's. There's a chapter at school. They meet with the guidance [counselor]. Service is their main mission, and we are their main form of service. It's steady every year, [that their service is] the backpack program. They were very sad trying to come back in last year during COVID. I said "Guys our space is small where we get together." So this year they are wearing their masks, they're coming in; and I said "Don't bring eight of you at once, bring four," which they do and they're great. We have all the food ready for them [based off of] the menu and they just go around packing every bag, pack their cars and take them over to school. It takes only like a half hour on Thursday afternoons. They have a rotat[ing] [schedule]. It depends on how good the advisor is, their senior this year is fabulous, she communicates with me. In fact, even a week ago, before I even told her, she went, "What about Thanksgiving break? What are we doing? And what about the holidays?" I said "Yup, we've got it covered, you're coming on Wednesday." Last week it was Veteran's Day, so the packs will go out on Friday. She's on the ball. We got a good Leo this year, and she's got a rotating schedule. I saw it at school recently, which one of her volunteers are coming. She has them sign up each week.
DW:
Do you see the kids that are in the Leo?
KC:
So those kids-
DW:
Or do they come back for volunteering if they stay for the summer?
KC:
It's interesting I haven't seen that. I haven't needed that I guess. What happens is that I recruit my grandkids. They pack the boxes in the summer with us. They're not there for when the people to pick them up but I've got other volunteers [to be there for that]. I was telling Mary Kate the other day, one of the Leo's a few years ago came back in to talk to me and she said, "I could have used this program when I was growing up." She came in her senior year, she had a lot of problems in her family, and she said "I'd really like to help here. Can I do something else?" She would come meet me once in a while, and we would make these snack packs that go to the upstairs pantry, and we got a really nice relationship going. She was like "What else can I do?" She would email me [saying] "I can be available this day, what can I do?" And she would come help and she helped with Empty Bowls, which is the fundraiser we run for the pantry. So that was nice. If I need some kids we [would call the Leo's to ask], but haven't needed them outside of what they do. But I certainly could find them if I needed them for a big project.
[laughing]
DW:
[laughing] Rope them in.
KC:
They do help with the Empty Bowls. It's not run by the food pantry, that was a group of potters who started [Empty Bowls]. That's across the country too. There's a lot of people that do pottery in this town. I ended up taking it [Empty Bowls] over and I still have that on my plate. [laughing] Somehow, I took over Empty Bowls, but the potters make like 300 [to 350] bowls at the Smithy. Then I get soups from different businesses in town. We serve usually 300 people. We make about 7 grand by the end of the day. We sell the bowls for $15, they [the patrons] come in and look at all these beautiful pottery bowls. The idea is it's a simple meal to remind you of food insecurity in the village, in the area basically. It's done nationwide, so Leo's help with that. They'll come staff that, they'll help with the dishes.
DW:
OK.
KC:
They'll help serve, they do a lot to do with the food pantry.
DW:
That's awesome. So you sell the bowls?
KC:
They sell them, but with COVID we didn't do it [this past year]. We had it on March 7th [2020], right before COVID. We started to hear about this virus, and if it had been a week later, we wouldn't have had it. I had a very successful event [in 2020], and I didn't have anyone get sick. Thank God it wasn't in Cooperstown yet, but everybody is asking when I'm going to do it [this year]. I've got the bowls sitting there, the potters made them last year [so] I'm hoping [we can have it this year]. But the church tonight is doing a takeout only Brookes dinner at the Episcopal Church, so I have to see [if we can have it this year]. The community loves to get together, the line goes out the door [ when we run Empty Bowls]. They picked their bowl, then the Leo's wash it before they go in [to eat]. They go to the soup line, and they sit down, they get soup, bread and water basically. And out they go with a beautiful bowl. People look forward to it every year, so hopefully it will happen this year. You'll know about it if it does, we always send the info over to the graduate program, because you guys are always looking to eat of course.
[laughing]
DW:
OK. I was going to say, now that you know me, I'm gonna get roped into it,
KC:
That's right! You'll be volunteering!
DW:
So I'll be washing the bowls.
[laughing]
KC:
That's right.
DW:
And what does the money that you raise go to?
KC:
So that Empty Bowl, does go to food pantries. It's not affiliated with the pantry, like I say when I do that I'm not representing the pantry. I'm representing Empty Bowls and then they have always donated the money to [pantries], and it goes into the general fund of the pantry.
DW:
OK, so not directly the Cooperstown Pantry?
KC:
In this case it does go to the Cooperstown food pantry, we within our community, raise it for the Cooperstown pantry. So it does.
DW:
That's really cool
KC:
Yeah it is.
DW:
In our pre-interview you mentioned that there's no income limit for people that come to the food pantry. How does that affect people that are willing to use the food pantry as a resource?
KC:
What do you mean like?
DW:
Like, do you think that more people come because there's no limitation?
KC:
That's a good question. We don't ask. I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind that, except that you don't want to be barrier. If you started asking that, or you say there's a cut off [it might discourage people]. I think that there's something they have to sign once a year, but don't quote me on it. I think there's a form that just says they need the food, or they're not selling it. There's some form [that they sign once a year], but I'd have to look at it more closely. Maybe if you ask them their income it could be a barrier because, I think it would be [a barrier] for me if I had to go in. Maybe you're making $30,000 and it sounds like a lot of money to you, [and you're] trying to feed five people. You may be embarrassed to say [ you need help] though [because you think] "I should be able to feed my family for that." That's the only way I can think of that. I think that it's great we don't ask. Our form asks if you get SNAP, if you use HEAP [Heat and Energy Assistance Program] and then I would say "We're asking these questions because we have people that can help you get these things." Then you get a good idea too, if they are on Medicaid. You get a good idea if they're using the right services. You ask if they're employed, it doesn't matter, but most times people are. Or sometimes one of the people is employed [full or] part time. I had a woman today who just called to ask to get something in between her visits. She said, "I just lost my job, I'm just trying to get food stamps." There is that delay in between [applying and actually receiving them], so of course we'll serve her. It's hard for people though.
DW:
Right, and I know in more urban areas, there's mounds of paperwork that you have to fill out in order to utilize the food pantry.
KC:
That's interesting, I guess we're very fortunate that there isn't here. I wonder if those pantries are connected – I wonder who they're connected with - because we're under Feeding America and there are guidelines. I don't know enough about that. That would be interesting to find out. I'm glad we don't have to do that.
DW:
Right. Yeah, the in my hometown in order to utilize it you have to fill out an income sheet. You have to show pay stubs. I was just wondering, you saw an increase or if you think that there might be an increase, because of the lack of paperwork?
KC:
No, and that's interesting. One time I went to pick up for someone, a client we were trying to help. We don't do delivery, but I was delivering something up to his house, and I said, "Let me go over the county." I worked at the county at the time, so I said "Let me go get the paperwork you need [for food stamps] because you need to get food." Anything connected with social services around here - government sponsored programs - I'm sure you would have to go through that rigamarole, and I was like, "Oh my God, this would keep me from filling it out." Even to get free and reduced lunch, it's a pretty complicated form. That's the big thing, she [one of my coworkers form backpack] was talking to the school, she said
"Is there a way we could help people fill this form out because even though it's not that hard, they're stressed. This is one more piece of paper. They're not going to do it."
Free and reduced lunch also effects how much state aid you get. A lot of kids don't fill out the form and would probably get more state aid if all the kids that really should get free and reduced lunch were signing up for it. I think a lot of it is that it's a pain in the neck to do it [the paperwork] more so than even the stigma of it.
DW:
Right
KC:
It's one more form to fill out. These people are stressed as it is.
DW:
Right and the paperwork is thick. And you were talking about connections to like free and reduced lunch or SNAP or the HEAP benefits, do you see a lot of people willing to go and utilize those other resources?
KC:
Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised. Mostly people say yes or, they say, "Oh, I don't quite qualify." Quite a few people are just on the edge of qualifying for food stamps. I remember during COVID, saying to a couple of my monthly people that they should check again, because I thought the government changed [the qualifications] during COVID. We have a guy from Catholic Charities who gives us his card and says "tell them to call me. I'll answer their questions." We've given that number to a lot of people. It's these people that are just making enough [to not qualify for government assistance]. They shouldn't throw people right off SNAP if they make a little bit more money, because they'd stay doing better if we just kept the SNAP benefits going.
DW:
Right, and we think all the other bills that they have to pay on top of it.
KC:
Yep, and the price of oil is going to kill people this year.
DW:
So high, yeah. Was this is the first food pantry?
KC:
That I ever worked in?
DW:
Yeah
KC:
Yeah, I really was never involved. Like I said, public health probably led me
to the door of this. Just to realize and I guess just going into delivery [brought me to this]. You have no idea this is going on in Cooperstown. We think everybody is just fine and dandy well, they're not.
DW:
Especially with the with the hospital right there, I think a lot of people have that assumption.
KC:
Yeah. They have that assumption. There are a lot of farmers. There's a lot of people and there's not a lot of employment here. You can work for the county, which is not a high paying job. You can work for the school, which is again does not have the highest pay. They pay a lot more in Cherry Valley, than in Cooperstown. It's moderate income for even people that are doing well. If you have a few kids, or somebody loses a job or you switch houses [it makes money tight]. Housing is not cheap, as you're finding nothing to rent around here, and it's way high. You can see why more and more people, could probably use a food pantry.
DW:
Right. And you mentioned in the pre-interview again that once you started volunteering at the food pantry you quickly became more and more involved. Are there any plans for you to take on a bigger role in the organization or lead any other projects?
KC:
No, in fact I just took myself off the food pantry board because I do so much else. What I like to do is the busy behind the scenes work. I could move thousand pounds of meat for you. I like to be busy, and I do plenty of that [keeping busy]. The board is going in a lot of these new directions, which I think is where we need to go. I think we need some people with different, more professional backgrounds - I don't feel I'm well suited for that part of it. I am on board with the people that can do that. A lot of those people are not the people that are working in the pantry, so I couldn't give any more than I already give.
[laughing]
DW:
Would you ever consider going back onto the board?
KC:
Maybe in the future. It's not a problem for me to be off, because I'm so involved with everybody on the board. What they're going to start looking for is [where] you don't have to be on the board to be on a committee. I'd be [better] suited for being on the buildings and grounds [committee]. My husband and I, we just painted the whole downstairs, and we do that kind of stuff. In the storage room we just ripped out shelves. That's [the building and grounds committee is] where I could see ourselves [being more involved] without having to go to a board meeting or be doing the paperwork. Yet people could be on all these other jobs that need to get done [if they were on the committee's]. He [my husband] gets more and more involved as I've been involved too.
DW:
Tell me a little bit more about the other committees that are involved?
KC:
There's the Business and Finance Committee, and they're talking about
forming these other committees. One would be Facilities, because there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done to keep the place going. We've got some people now that are on the board that are helping to keep the place clean, which used to be [us] doing all that too. Whose cleaning this place [between their visits]? That's something that's forming. There's a lot of ideas out there now, because we became our own nonprofit. I think a lot will be happening in the next two to three years, honestly. Transportation is something we'd like to see happen where we could. There are liabilities involved with that. You could never take the clients to the pantry, but I think you could find people that could take food to them. That wouldn't be any liability for us. Everything has to go with insurance these days too. I think its's always moving forward, and that's really a good thing. There's been a lot of change and growth in the years I've been there, I mean it was in a closet when I moved here, it's amazing.
DW:
And besides maybe seeing transportation in the future, are there any
other projects that you would like to see the food pantry take on?
KC:
I can't think of anything in particular right now. We just try to stay to our
mission of food and personal care. Right now, we've got the Coats for Kids rack outside the door - that used to be in clothing closet in a building that we didn't run. You can't take on all of that [other projects] too because we have a very small space. I think we're trying to be careful of what our mission is, which is food. There are other organizations like Toys [for Toddlers] this time of year, that we give information on. There was a sign up for Toys through social services in Oneonta. We'd like to do it all, but you really have to go back to [remembering] we are a food pantry. We do supply more than [just food] we do have diapers, personal care - which most pantries don't - we have shampoo and all that kind of stuff, which I think is great. I think we're doing pretty good.
DW:
Yeah.
KC:
I can't think of anything else right now. Transportation would be a good
one and it is definitely on the horizon. We get new people, like I said with this person from the Office of the Aging. That may lead to another avenue, who knows where I might get involved if the idea came up. I'd be happy to deliver food.
DW:
Right. That's awesome and Mary Kate was telling me about the stuff that you have for babies, the diapers and formula and stuff. Tell me a little bit more about that.
KC:
We you know, we are lucky. Again with Feeding America there's all these categories [of product] that come on the truck, and one of its called salvage. It would be salvaged diapers, salvaged feminine hygiene products. You get these gigantic heavy boxes to carry down the stairs. It's stuff that gets returned at Walmart that has never even been opened, and it goes to Feeding America. A lot of that has been low during COVID, but this Tuesday we are going to get three huge boxes of feminine hygiene products, so then we'll go through the pads, tampons, whatever bladder products for people. There are other things our last director tried getting, something that is called hardware. How are you going to say "I got these many hinges and panels?" That's all stuff that if we were a different kind of organization, maybe you'd want that. We found that personal care is [something that we find] very important. Especially diapers, if somebody doesn't have diapers and maybe they're limiting their kid to one or two diapers a day. [Then the baby] gets a rash and the baby cries and sometimes it can lead to shaking a baby, and it's not the babies fault. We certainly don't have a monthly supply [of diapers] to give them, but we give them a weeks' worth when they come. For a while we were able to get [diapers] through a program with New York and I thought it would to keep going, but it's hit and miss. When it first happened, we stockpiled what we were allowed to, so we've not run out. We've got every size right now. When you get the salvage diapers, sometimes you get all newborns. We need a lot of [size] fives and sixes. We do have diapers, we do have wipes. We were able to get them free and we stockpiled them a few months ago. We'll have them for the next year, I think. But those are all important things. Then [we have] bladder products for older people. That stuff, when you look at CVS and see the price of this stuff.
DW:
So expensive.
KC:
Oh my Gosh! We have that, and shampoo, and laundry detergent. Everyone was so happy to get that during Covid. People weren't going out and there was nothing on the shelves. We tried to source things whenever we could economically, and we got a lot of different grants during COVID. We asked for personal care and these things. We're able to use the money for that now. If people say it [the money] is for food, it has to be for food. You have to come into the pantry someday and see the whole inside operation because it's really well stocked. We get the salvaged
[START OF TRACK 3 1:00:00]
Produce every day from Price Chopper. Some days we get a lot, some days we don't. We get meat from them. When it [the meat] says, sell by today, they'll walk it into their freezer and someone from the pantry picks it up every day. Then it's frozen and stays frozen, so it's totally safe to give out. That saves us a lot of money, we're getting that [meat] free. It's really good quality meat for the most part. Then we will order on the truck, Tuesday we're getting a ton of meat. We haven't been able to see chicken in a while and it popped up the other day and we just ordered as much as we were allowed to order. We'll fill our freezers again. When you look at the price of meat now, a package of chopped meat is 10 bucks! There is the guideline [on how much meat we can give]. Today I had one of the biggest families, and they got 12lbs of meat for five people. That's a pretty good amount of assorted fresh meat. We do have vegetarian [options]. We don't have a lot of vegetarians, but when they come, we have great stuff. They're always happy with everything we've got.
DW:
Right.
KC:
We do have cat and dog food, because we had a grant. We don't spend people food [money] on that. There's a foundation that [gives money for this purpose]. Somebody said, "the reason you give it to them is because if they had the cat maybe [having this as a resource, will let them allocate] the money [they saved on pet food] to buy their child the food they need. Because they're always feeding their animals." Sometimes they have more [pets] than they should, but I can't judge that. The fact is, they have animals, so we should feed them. That is a separate line item; people are only donating [for that]. And we're getting it at cost at, or salvage prices. We would go to the grocery store and pay the [salvaged] price of cat food or whatever. So, we do have that as well.
DW:
That's really interesting.
KC:
Yeah, cat and dog food.
DW:
I didn't know that.
KC:
They get like a bag. It's a gallon bag of dog food or a little bag of cat food. The maximum they can get is two, I think for each one. Because we just can't get that much of it.
DW:
But like you said it's something. If they can spend money that they would have spent on that on food for their children then why not? And one quick question, going back to the hygiene products. For older students in the backpack program, like in older Middle School / High School, I don't know if you get the age demographics of who you serve. Do you put hygiene products like that in the backpacks?
KC:
We don't, but what I noticed at the school play last weekend - my daughter who teaches, and I - we went into the bathroom the other side of the school, where the whole crowd wasn't going, and [saw feminine hygiene products available]. That became a law in New York State. They expect [schools] to provide them for free and in the bathrooms. There's those slot type [containers, that are usually charged], there's no money involved [now]. Any girl who gets their period in the middle of the day can run in grab what she needs. The nurse always has [products available], and there's certain teachers in the school that have it for those emergency situations.
DW:
OK.
KC:
I have to share that with Mary Kate actually, that was a good point. It's always there, and it's always full. It's nice that we have that product, because that does save people money. School is very good about having those products for kids.
DW:
Yeah. Oh good, I didn't know that.
KC:
Yes, in fact that's a New York State thing. I said "Oh good ." [When I heard]
DW:
And one the last question, just tell me a bit about the best part of working
in the community in this way is?
KC:
I guess it's that you're always meeting new people. And the volunteers, I've met so many people that I wouldn't have met otherwise. There's [people from] all walks of life, because it's all people that are mostly retired. There are some people still working that manage to fit this into their day. and I, We're not having the interaction we used to because when they come in, we do everything [from a distance]. You just get laughing and meeting people and I think just make them feel comfortable, you always get more than you give. And that's really why I do it. It gives me something to do, you know what am I going to do around here? Clean the house? [laughing]
DW:
I would rather do something else too.
KC:
Exactly. I'm very lucky to be retired and find a good purpose in this community, there's plenty to do. There's no lack of volunteer [work]. I have always thought about going to the hospital to volunteer but then I found this. I do other little things here and there. Since I've been a nurse, if someone's sick like in the neighborhood [I go take care of them]. I do like to care for people, and I do patient care. I've had family members that needed help, and I'll go spend a week with them. That's just part of my nursing background, so I have plenty of purpose and time if someone calls and needs me, I can just go.
DW:
That's amazing.
KC:
I'm very lucky. I'm very lucky and very blessed.
DW:
Well, sounds like you guys are doing great work and sounds like this is a
really good community resource.
KC:
It really is, and it's ever expanding the mission, and it's always moving forward and that's a good place to be. New ideas, and new people are always good.
DW:
Awesome! Well we can go ahead and wrap up now thank you so much for
talking to me.
KC:
This has been a pleasure talking to you Des.
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Coverage
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Upstate New York
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Cooperstown, NY
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1953-2021
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Creator
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Desiree Winiarski
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Publisher
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Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York-College at Oneonta
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Rights
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Cooperstown Graduate Association, Cooperstown, NY
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Format
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Audio/mpeg
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27.4 mB
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1.10 gB
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4.61 mB
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Image/jpeg
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14.7 mB
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Language
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en-US
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Type
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Sound
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Image
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Identifier
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21-015
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Abstract
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Track 1, 00:11:10 - Backpack Program
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Tack 2, 00:01:45 - Head Start
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Track 2, 00:12:25 - Leo Club
