Letter from Sharon Oberriter

Support Sought for Pantries

I want to thank Stacie Haynes for a thought-provoking article in “News From the Noteworthy” in the edition of October 5, 2023. The value of human-animal bonds and the positive impact of an animal family member’s company is priceless. It mitigates depression and loneliness, especially among those people who are homebound and isolated, in addition to adding to the fun and well-being of a family.

We at the Cooperstown Food Pantry see the positive impact of these human-animal bonds. We are pleased to make our human friends aware of the pet pantry when they visit us. We hear their commitment to feed their pets, often to their own detriment, because the cost of pet food is an expense that forces an unselfish but potentially unhealthy choice between food for their pets and food for themselves.

And that’s where our mission to make good nutrition available to our friends and neighbors becomes part of the equation. For 47 years, we have provided food to all who come to our door by being open six days a week. At each monthly visit, we give five days of food for three meals a day for each member of the household. We require no referral and never accept any form of payment. Those who come to us from outside our service area are assisted until they can access help in their own community.

We are a member of Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger relief organization in the U.S., and source most of what we distribute through them. This allows access to free and reduced cost inventory, enabling us to additionally run a backpack program in our local school. We partner with the Otsego County Department of Social Services and their Tiny House program for local homeless, and assist cancer patients being treated at Bassett Healthcare. Additionally, we salvage thousands of pounds each month of edible food from local Price Chopper and Grand Union stores via the Fresh Recovery program and provide vouchers for fresh produce at the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market.

Currently, each month we are serving more than 500 clients, distributing over 20,000 pounds of food and supplies, and recovering about 10,000 pounds of fresh food from local grocery stores that would otherwise go to a landfill.

All these programs and our daily client services have seen a rising demand, increased food cost and issues with supply. Part of the rising demand is certainly attributable to the changes in the economy but, in addition, we are experiencing a doubling of the number of our 60-year-old-plus clients.

And Stacie is right: “…here in Otsego County…people struggling in one way or another will often provide better care for their pets than they do for themselves.”

We ask that you support both Susquehanna SPCA and the Cooperstown Food Panty to help our residents who struggle so they don’t have to decide between food for their animal family members and food for themselves. That way they both will be happy and healthy.

Sharon Oberriter
Board President, Cooperstown Food Pantry, Inc.