Local at Heart Donates $1,000 to Support Local Food Program
Local at Heart Donates $1,000 to Support Local Food Program
New Paltz Times
Ulster Publishing
During the summer months when schools are closed, some children go without lunch and breakfast. For some in our area, it’s their only meal of the day.
One local organization, Local at Heart, has responded to this shortfall by giving a $1,000 donation to help support the Summer Food Program, administered through the New Paltz United Methodist Church and Family of New Paltz by Nani Boutachka and Kathy Weiss.
Church Board Members Nani Boutachka, Kathy Weiss and Executive Director of Family of NP, Ivan Echenique, were on hand to accept the $1,000 donation from Local at Heart Board Members Craig Shankles, Connie Harkin and Linda Engler.
Nani and Kathy have been diligent in finding a way to keep the kids that typically receive Free Breakfast and Lunch at school and go home with meals in a weekend backpack, fed over the summer. The two retired teachers established a budget and began fundraising to support the effort. “When we learned of a shortfall, we had to respond. This opportunity to give back aligned perfectly with our mission to support our local food pantries,” said Craig Shankles, President of Local at Heart.
Funds were used to buy food items that were made ready for local distribution by Misty Mountains Girl Scout Troop #60142, led by Linda Engler. “As Girl Scouts, it is also in our mission to help others and we seek out places and people in need. We have been helping Local at Heart from its’ inception and we are happy to work together to help the people in our community,” said Engler. The brownies and juniors in the troop decided to use $300 that they had earned from cookie sales to go shopping for food to donate to the program.
Local at Heart is a New Paltz-based organization whose mission is to help support local food pantries through community fundraising efforts. They have two events planned in the months ahead. An Empty Bowls fundraiser on Sunday, October 1st and their Second Annual Cookie Walk on December 1st and 2nd. Both events this year, will take place on Huguenot Street in New Paltz. All are welcome.
