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Title
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Kathy Chase, December 13, 2021 (video)
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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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2021-19-11
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Subject
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Cooperstown Food Pantry
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Backpack Program
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Leo Club
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Food Insecurity
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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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DW = Desiree Winiarski
KC = Kathy Chase
DW:
This is Desiree Winiarski interviewing Kathy Chase at her house in Cooperstown, New York. The date is November 29th, 2021. Alright Kathy, would you be able to tell me your full name.
KC:
Yes, it's Kathleen Hoolahan Chase.
DW:
Right and would you be able to tell me a little bit about the backpack program at the food pantry?
KC:
I'd love to. The backpack program was started about 11 years ago when we saw the need for children that could use food on the weekend. We know they get fed two meals a day at school, and somebody realized “Well what’s happening on the weekends and in summer?” Our backpack program started with food going home every weekend 10-11 years ago and now continues during the summer with monthly boxes that have weekend type food.
DW:
And tell me a little bit about your role in the program.
KC:
I came into the backpack program probably the second year it was in operation, which was around 2010 or 2011. I just started as a volunteer the year before [at the food pantry] and they were looking for someone to coordinate that [the backpack program], so I said, "Oh I could do that." That’s how it all began, and we partnered with the school, with the Leo program and they help us transport the backpacks back and forth from the school, where they ultimately end up going home on Fridays with the children.
DW:
Tell me a little bit about the future of the program.
KC:
Well, we’re always looking for ways to expand. We've been talking about that recently with summer program. We know who our population is in the Cooperstown School District, but there are still probably children that are not utilizing that program, but they do come to the pantry. We're still kind of watching families that come in that have children, we usually ask "Do you have children that get the backpacks and what school are they from?" The pantry serves kids from Cherry Valley, and Richfield springs. That's where we hope to expand this next summer. To look at our population coming monthly to the pantry and seeing if we can't include some of those children, and if that might help these families other than just a monthly [visit] for their food for the family.
DW:
What changes did you see during the pandemic to the program?
KC:
It's really interesting. During the pandemic, we kind of knew it was happening March 13th when school closed down, so I had formulated a letter that went into that last backpack on the 13th. They're known to me - the people that come in during the summer - and I just gave them my home telephone number and email, and most of them contacted me and they went right on the monthly backpack program. We started with that school shut down in March, and by April first we were distributing a monthly box and so on. Some children are still doing that now who are maybe choosing to be remote at this point.
DW:
Tell me about the transition from weekly to monthly backpacks and then back down to weekly, how was that adjustment?
KC:
It's interesting, the monthly seems to serve people fine. The one maybe disadvantages of that is, they might eat all their food the first week it comes in. But the parents are picking it up, so hopefully there's control of that. I haven’t heard a parent tell me that that’s been a problem because we are always open to suggestions. I keep great contact by email with our families and you know, and if someone was to say oh maybe they need an extra [pack], or if we could split it [the food between] two weeks you know we can. Or however we want to get the food out to kids, believe me we will do it, that's the beauty of our pantry. We're funded well and you know we can change. I’m retired so it’s perfect, I could you know flex my schedule to whenever I need to, to meet people.
DW:
And how often are you down at the food pantry?
KC:
I’m down at the food pantry just because I like to be there. I'll pop in and out during the week. I'm always there Thursday afternoons getting ready for Backpack. Friday is my regular shift, where I serve clients. Usually, I'll pop in on Sundays and just as a help to the pantry, just make sure everything is ready for Monday morning. I might with [go] with some of my family, my grandkids, and my daughter help me with that. So, we just enjoyed doing that as a service.
DW:
Is there a wide variety of people that are willing to volunteer at the pantry?
KC:
Yeah, that's a great question and we're always looking for new volunteers I believe it [the ads, and any feedback] comes in local papers and social media, which I don’t do anything with that. There’s other people who do know how to use that and you know they put things out looking for volunteers. And I think the beauty of it is if this is the kind of service you like to do, which obviously it is the kind of service I like to do, you can actually just bring in other people by telling them what you're doing. And if you're not comfortable serving the public there's so much behind the scenes work that gets done and there are many people who are doing behind the scenes work. It's a great organization you know you can find your niche if you want to serve people in this way.
DW:
And are there any other programs that you are involved or that are starting up besides the backpack program?
KC:
Not right now as far as the food pantry goes. Well actually I am involved in another part of the food pantry. We call ourselves the mules and that is our delivery operation. Our food comes from Feeding America once a month. We order it online, you know that’s a whole inventory process, and then the truck comes into Tops out[side] the town and Bruce Hall volunteers their truck and a driver every month to meet the truck with some of our volunteer men that help on that day. And that's how the food gets into the pantry. So that's a chain. And probably I have probably 35 people on an email list and whoever can come whenever we send out the email. It's generally the last Thursday of the month, so that's another whole group of people that got involved. I had a gentleman, a doctor actually, who just retired from the hospital called me today. He heard about this, he's on my list. He’s coming December 16th which is our next delivery. You know any organization that depends on volunteers, you're always looking for people, and I think that most people that work there love what they do, so you generate finding more volunteers in that way. I believe anyway.
DW:
How has previous volunteer work, if you have had it, influenced where you are now?
KC:
I was a nurse by profession. I started out as a candy striper, so I've always enjoyed serving people, particularly I'm interested in elderly population. That’s always kind of been a strength of mine. I worked in a nursing home for years. Then [focused on] raising my children, and I was home here as a as a mom for many years. During that period when my kids are old enough to tote along, I started delivering Meals on Wheels. Food sort of always has been in the background I would say, of helping provide that to people. It was a natural parent for me when I found out about the food pantry.
DW:
Right, and you've mentioned that your family is very involved. Is that a passion that you made sure to instill in them from a young age? Or is that interest that they've developed?
KC:
Yes, I would say that's true. I saw with my parents as great role models always helping in the community, very involved in our church growing up. And you know, my kids, we've always been involved in many church activities, school activities. And my daughter, who's got children in Cooperstown school, she volunteers for everything. My daughter, who's a teacher also helps me at the pantry she volunteers at the library. I think [because of] role modeling, they see the sense of purpose. And they have found their own purpose in that way, I am very proud of them.
DW:
Tell me a little bit about the role models that you had when you were younger.
KC:
I always said you know, [I had] great teachers. My parents were wonderful, my grandparents, you know, everybody really, we had a very loving family. I have a huge family I come from seven children. I'd say I always I was very lucky to have very good role models and parents [that] always helped outside of the house, [with] any neighbor in need or group in need. I think that's just part of my background, lucky for me really.
DW:
It seems like there's a very strong sense of community surrounding the food pantry. How do you feel like that influences the people that use it as a resource?
KC:
I've been around interviewing our clients plenty of times, with different volunteers in the office myself being one of those. And I just find everybody has the utmost respect for the clients and their privacy. Especially if it's their first time coming to make people really feel at ease. We get a lot of comments from people who've been to other pantries, they love coming to us, [because] we are very well stocked. We're open 6 days a week which is not the case for many pantries, so that I think is big advantage. We stay open up until 6:00 o'clock one day a week now to help after work, we are open Saturday mornings and actually our message on the machine was, if you need to visit outside the hours someone would be willing to certainly help somebody if that's the only time they could get here. I think that as people get involved, there's good longevity [with] people that stay volunteering. The pandemic changed that for a little while, but in the last six months, we're seeing more and more of our regular volunteers coming back. Always looking for new, but I think it's a real satisfying place. I've never heard of any complain about the volunteering. It’s short shift two- or three-hour shift, so it's not too long. That's probably a good way to do it, and we have a group of just substitute volunteers who will fill in. That's another large list, so there's a lot of people of all backgrounds and all ages helping at the food pantry which says a lot for the organization I would say.
DW:
You also mentioned the Leo Club, would you mind elaborating on that a little bit?
KC:
So, the Lions Club is a service oriented [group] of adults. I had never heard of the Leo’s until I got involved with the food pantry, and that is a younger group of the Lions Club. Usually, the Lions senior members overseas them, but they have a presence of their club through the school. They do have an adult moderator. One of their main focus’ of service is the backpack program. I’d say that’s the number one [program they do] every year. During the pandemic they were really looking forward [to it] but we couldn't let them come last year, but they're back now. That's a group for young people and their president is great and she has a volunteer sheet at the school. For every Thursday that we're up in operation, if it's a holiday maybe a different day, prior to the break, they sign up. We ask them for about four to six volunteers to come over and they drive over, and they have their car. They pack up, we had the food ready, they packed it up. They bring it back to a designated area at the school. They nor I know the children by name, so then staff takes care of how it gets distributed to the children.
DW:
And last question here what would you say your favorite part about volunteering in the community is?
KC:
I say just meeting different people. It's always great when you feel you've met a need, obviously, but this is a community. There are so many different people all ages, and I think we blend very well so you know you just meet all walks of life and it's very satisfying and I feel like a part of Cooperstown.
DW:
Thank you so much for taking time to talk to me.
KC:
Thank 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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Video/mp4
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1.03 GB
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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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21-015b
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Abstract
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00:00:41 - Backpack Program
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00:10:14 - Leo Club
