Money on the Way To Agencies Fighting Hunger

By Holly Crocco

Money is on the way to local nonprofits that are helping to keep food on the table for area families in need.

The Putnam County Legislature voted unanimously during its Aug. 4 meeting to release $150,000 from the county’s subcontingency budget and transfer it to Cornell Cooperative Extension-Putnam and Second Chance Foods, to fight food insecurity.

In 2025, the Legislature voted to dedicate the funds to support agencies that help feed the hungry, moving the money into subcontingency – which is where it has sat for several months. However, with last week’s vote, CCE will soon get $100,000 and Second Chance Foods will get $50,000.

Legislator Toni Addonizio, R-Kent, noted that the funding will support not only the purchase of food, but packaging, storage and refrigeration, transportation, program coordination, meal preparation systems, and everything else involved.

“The funding will help implement strategies and make sure valuable resources meet those who need it most,” she said. “I’m proud to support the $150,000 funding, which will help our community build a more sustainable food assistance network.”

Legislator Bill Gouldman, R-Putnam Valley, said he has seen firsthand how busy these agencies are and the demand they see.

“We do live in a very wealthy community, but there are many of our neighbors and friends living in the shadows, and whatever we can do to get food to the food panties… we really should do as a government,” he said. “One-hundred-and-fifty-thousand is great, but I can tell you it’s not going to go very far. But it’s what we have in front of us.”

Legislator Erin Crowley, R-Mahopac, supported the idea, but said she was concerned about a “whereas” clause in the resolution that mentions the funding filling a gap for the loss of Meals on Main on the western side of the county.

“To me that sounds inequitable,” she said. “I do not want to see this money sit in subcontingency. I want to see it move… I want this resolution to work for all who are suffering with food insecurity.”

Legislator Nancy Montgomery, D-Philipstown, who wrote the resolution, said the reason the loss of Meals on Main on the western side of the county was referenced in the resolution is because the program wasn’t lost on the eastern side.

“In addition to the lack of services to the western side of the county, for example, what exists on the eastern side of the county is all of our mental health resources, all of our senior resources – with the exception of a senior center, all of our DMV resources,” she said. “We can go on and on about all the resources that exist on the eastern side of the county and the lack of resources on the western side of the county.”

However, the resolution also clearly states, throughout, that resources should be distributed in a manner that reflects documented community need, including geographic accessibility, she said.

Legislator Amy Sayegh, R-Mahopac Falls, said she’s not concerned about how the agencies will identify need, since a stated priority in the resolution is on underserved geographic areas and communities with a lack of food assistance.

“These are the resources in Putnam County who serve the people who need it,” she said. “They know exactly where the food needs to go, they are the boots on the ground – more so than any of us legislators… I have no problem with that. I’m not stuck on (the loss of) Meals on Main because I also see that it’s going to be a focus on seniors and residents.”

Legislator Dan Birmingham, R-Brewster, voiced full support for the resolution. He noted that, amid national rankings, Putnam is named as one of the top 25 wealthiest counties in America. However, there is still hunger and food insecurity in each district.

“This is a county issue,” he said. “We should realize that just because we all may be doing well, it doesn’t mean others are not.”

He also said he’d like to see the funding continue in the 2027 budget, and maybe even develop a mechanism for the county to work with the food pantries directly – and provide even more support. “It’s not nothing,” he said of the $150,000. “But it’s a drop int the bucket when people are hungry and need food.”

Crowley asked if there’s a way to assure the funding is strictly helping Putnam residents.

“I get it – people are hungry, they come in and get food,” she said. “We’re trying to do this for Putnam County residents. How do you just do this for Putnam County residents when Second Chance Foods serves Putnam, Dutchess, Westchester? How do you make sure it’s only going to Putnam.”

Birmingham replied, in short, that the funding may not be helping strictly Putnam residents.

“We’re not going to turn hungry people away in Putnam County if they’re here to get food,” he said. “If we’re going to limit this to Putnam County residents, I’m not sure how we’d do that as a practical matter. We’re not going to start asking for IDs.”

Legislator Tommy Regan, R-Southeast, said the agencies need to be able to spend the funding as they see fit. While the county likes to have fiscal oversight, “unshackled dollars is often the best way to get sandwiches on plates and accomplish some other goals that we’ve spoken about before,” he said.

Montgomery expressed frustration over the hurdles being faced in getting food to agencies that fight hunger. She said the resolution was written to try and hit every obstacle that would arise.

“I knew full well that I would have difficulty releasing money to feed the hungry based on politics, so with that I wrote a very detailed resolution, and I regret that,” she said. “There is greater need in different areas of the county because of loss of programs due to the federal government, so it may not be distributed ‘evenly.’”

Marsha Elder, executive director of Second Chance Foods and a Kent resident, agreed with that sentiment. “We’re focused on equity. We want to make sure we serve people who need to be served,” she said during the public comment portion of last week’s meeting.

Elder said the agency has a $2.3 million yearly budget, and about 70 percent of services are provided to Putnam residents. As for food pantries at the libraries, she noted that, while it’s not impossible that someone from Peekskill would go to Putnam Valley to get a meal, they can’t get a library card there, so they likely wouldn’t. Likewise, senior centers check residency, so it’s unlikely that non-county residents would pick up food there.

“Thank you for recognizing that food insecurity continues to effect many of our neighbors, and it’s only worsening with rising food costs and changes to the SNAP program,” she said. “This resolution builds on systems that already exist, instead of building something from scratch… Most importantly, our neighbors who are struggling with hunger cannot afford to wait. We stand ready to begin this work as soon as you authorize this, and respectfully ask that you not keep hungry people waiting.”

Scott Seaman, a trustee on the Brewster School Board and a Brewster resident, agreed. “The need is now,” he said. “We have groups in the high school, what they do is collect food and give it out to people in need.”

Seaman noted that Brewster has the highest percentage of students qualifying for free lunches, and the greatest demographic of people in need. “People are starving already,” he said. “We should do this all the time” – including in future years.