Linda, Nick, and Nancy
Back in December, Nick A. met with Nancy Keeney, the President of the Red Hook Faculty Association, and Linda Greenblatt, longtime Rotarian and Red Hook Community supporter, to review the recently concluded Nourish Your Neighbor campaign.
Through the efforts of Red Hook Schools’ personnel, including teachers, students, and staff, Bard students (through the Center for Civic Engagement with assistance from Sarah DeVeer), and other local contributors, the NYN Food Drive collected over 4,000 food items that were distributed to local food pantries. Additionally, Mike McCrudden from the high school helped raise over $1,600 for this Holiday Season’s food voucher program. The Ascienzo Family Foundation was happy to match that. All in all, the Foundation’s pledge of $1 per food item donation and additional $1,600 in matching funds resulted in a charitable gift of $5,437 for the voucher program.
Nancy’s message yesterday to her teacher colleagues reads in part:
Feel good! Food cards have been delivered to our food-insecure families, thanks to the diligent efforts of many. On behalf of the RHFA, I accepted a check from Nick Ascienzo and the Ascienzo Family Foundation for $5,347 yesterday. That's a lot of food cards!
Thanks to our lead volunteers, including Peg D'Onofrio, Kim Goldhirsch, Lauren Cerullo, Mary Hare, Jane Hillery, and Mike McCrudden…...Thanks to our amazing nurses and guidance counselors for getting the food cards into the hands of food insecure families for the holidays.
We’re grateful to partner with so many advocates who address food insecurity, are so generous with their time, and resolve in assisting community neighbors. Perhaps one of these years we will reach our goal of 10,000 collected food items - better yet, perhaps one of these years there won’t need to be any number to address at all and our collective generosities may be focused in other areas!
Read about last year’s Nourish Your Neighbor Campaign here.