Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - The holiday season is always challenging for food pantries. This year, hundreds of families on Syracuse’s North Side may go hungry because the Assumption Food Pantry says it's out of food and money.
“We've pretty much run out of food today,” said Brother Nicholas Spano with the Assumption Food Pantry.
Demand for the pantry’s services has grown, while donations have dwindled. The pantry needs non-perishable canned foods to stay open, but in the long term it needs financial support.
“This has really become a lifeline for most of our clients,” said said Spano. The pantry typically serves 400 families per month, and many more rely on the pantry for occasional help. Right now, they have barely enough to feed 10 families.
"Food is not a luxury, it's a necessity and if that won't be able to be received here anymore it will also hurt our neighboring programs there are two food pantries here on the North Side who would then have to absorb the people we couldn't serve,” said Spano.
The food pantry hands out sandwiches and bag lunches twice per day, in addition to providing for families’ basic needs. That service should continue to run but they say, at this rate, the pantry could close by Jan. 1.
Monetary donations to the Assumption Food Pantry can be made by visiting
AssumptionFoodPantry.org or by sending checks to Assumption Food Pantry, Attn: Mission Advancement, 812 N. Salina St, Syracuse, NY 13208. Food donations can be made in person at the Pantry located at 808 N. Salina St.
Call in advance to make an appointment at (315) 473-9101.
