Our Partners

Our primary partner in the acquisition and distribution of food is the food bank of Feeding Westchester, located in Elmsford, NY. We rely on Feeding Westchester to purchase food in bulk for us and over 200 other agencies throughout the county. In addition to purchased food, their warehouse receives tons of donated food weekly. During the pandemic, we were lucky to receive many donations of food from a variety of sources and still nearly half of the food we distributed last year came from Feeding Westchester.

Food rescue organizations like County Harvest manage a network of volunteer “harvesters” who pick up donated food from supermarkets, caterers, wholesalers and others, and then deliver the food to pantries and soup kitchens like ours. During the pandemic, the amount of food we received through County Harvest increased four-fold, making it the second largest single provider of food for our daily distributions.

A new addition to our food recovery partnerships is Food Rescue US, which has been providing us with fairly large shipments of surplus food since late 2020. As the focus of suppliers shifts to donation rather than food waste, the demand for swift distribution of food to those who need it most will continue to increase. We do not want to turn anyone away.

Retailers

Rescued food also comes to us directly from retail stores. Restaurant Depot, Wegman’s and Costco alone contribute over 1,000 pounds of food per week, and that number has been increasing steadily as others come on board.

Local Farms & COmmunity Gardens

Throughout the growing and harvesting seasons we receive regular weekly donations of fresh produce from small community gardens, school gardens and cooperative farms. This is an area we are looking to grow with our Farm to Family initiative, encouraging investment in cooperative farms and gardens to provide a dedicated weekly harvest for families in need. Our farm partners include Hilltop Hanover Farm, Our New Way Garden, Cornell Cooperative Extension Program, and an increasing number of school programs, including Port Chester Middle School, Rye Country Day School and Scarsdale Middle School.

Meal Distributors

The Carver Center on Westchester Avenue provided many programs for the community before the pandemic, but since then, it has focused on food distribution, expanding its Carver Market to three days per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We deliver meals and perishable food items to supplement the orders they place with Feeding Westchester and other suppliers.

Before the pandemic, The Salvation Army operated a small pantry in its building on Bush Avenue, where it held many programs for the community. When people could not come, they converted the space into a warehouse, receiving pallets of food each week from Feeding Westchester, along with deliveries of meals and perishable items from us. Every Wednesday, they serve over 200 families.

The seeds to our Restaurant Connection program were sown in our collaborative partnership with SW Boces and its culinary program. Chefs John and Pete have been turning our recovered and rescued food into savory offerings for the past two school years. Their students accept the challenges we throw at them which provide them with valuable opportunities to test their skills and feed the hungry at the same time. During the pandemic, when the school was closed, we continued to keep the relationship alive so that we were ready to start up again as soon as the students returned to the kitchens.

Prior to the pandemic, chicken was a weekly staple, with Chicken Tuesdays. When we could no longer serve people at table, we started preparing meals to go and then for delivery. Garden Catering came to the rescue with discounted trays of chicken as well as donated trays, allowing us to double the number of meals we could prepare each week.

Building on the BOCES model, we partnered with Castle View Deli to help turn recovered and surplus food into meals. The deli raised the funds to help cover the cost and during downtime, the staff prepared sandwiches, soups, trays of meat and vegetables, and even cut and packaged slices of cakes and pie for us to include in the meal bags for distribution. It is a partnership model that has helped everyone involved.

Italian favorites like eggplant and chicken parmigiana have been the staples ordered from Pasquale Ristorante just around the corner from our new home. We pick up the trays in the afternoon and prepare our meals the next morning for delivery that day, or to be frozen for a later date. But nothing lasts long in our fridges and freezers. It all moves out as fast as it comes in.

Another great source of Italian food is T&J’s Restaurant and Pizza. We started ordering some of our favorites, like chicken cacciatore and chicken française, but we found meals with sauces were difficult to pack without spills. So, we switched to chicken parmigiana and broccoli with garlic. Yes, we do offer a lot of chicken.

For a change of menu, Fridays are taco days with delicious pork tacos from Bartaco. We found a way to offer these soft treats without making a mess - we make a taco kit and box it up for the families to put together at meal time. This is one meal we don’t freeze. We deliver it ready to heat and eat. You have to be creative to get family meals out to people when they cannot come to you.

When it comes to Park Deli, people have so many favorite dishes, but we couldn’t resist ordering mac and cheese trays to add to our meals. We have been told our clients get the best Port Chester has to offer, and we cannot disagree.