
Volunteers at the weekly Friday food distribution program at The Food of Life/Comida de Vida Food Pantry at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Amenia Union serve a community of neighbors.
Leila Hawken
Volunteers at the weekly Friday food distribution program at The Food of Life/Comida de Vida Food Pantry at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Amenia Union serve a community of neighbors.
In view of rising costs for life’s necessities, especially for older residents or families with children, local food pantries stand ready to help.
Volunteers are friends and neighbors who may benefit from the existence of the pantry or they may be people who simply want to lend a hand by helping their communities.
Groceries and fresh produce can be just out of reach for families on a budget that struggles to stretch far enough. It might not be all the time, but sometimes a bit of local assistance can make a big difference.
Periodically, The Millerton News looks in on the area food bank programs and updates readers on availability, location, hours and other details. While we try to be accurate at the outset, sometimes hours might change, so it is best to call ahead before visiting.
Understand that these locations are staffed by volunteers who want nothing more than to welcome their neighbors with a warm smile and good wishes. Volunteers are always needed to keep the pantries up and running smoothly. Donations of a few hours of time, groceries and funds are always welcome.
Millerton/North East
Location: North East Community Center (NECC), 51 South Center St. Phone: 518-789-4259, ext. 124. Email: foodaccess@neccmillerton.org. Hours: Every Wednesday, 3-6 p.m. and Thursday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
The NECC Food and Supply Pantry offers groceries and household supplies to local residents prioritizing nutrition. Member: Regional Food Bank of New York. Partnered with Glynwood Foundation’s Food Sovereignty Fund and its partnership with Rock Steady Farm and Chaseholm Farm to offer fresh vegetables, grass-fed yogurt and beef. Volunteers needed: Yes. Donations needed: Yes. More information: www.neccmillerton.org
Location: NorthEast-Millerton Library — two programs. The Little Library Pantry at Veterans Park, at the intersection of Main Street and Dutchess Avenue. Hours 24/7. Take what you need, leave what you can. Also, the Little Free Grocery at the Library, 75 Main St. Phone: 518-789-3340 or submit an order at www.nemillertonlibrary.org for pickup at the library. Residency requirements: No. Volunteers needed: No. Donations needed: Yes, online or to P.O. Box 786, Millerton, NY 12546.
Amenia
Location: Sun River Health, 3360 Route 343. Phone: 845-476-9343. Dutchess County Outreach Mobile Food Pantry. Hours: Every Wednesday, 2-5 p.m. Supported by a grant from Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York and additional support from Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Residency requirements: No. Volunteers needed: No. Donations needed: No.
Location: Vine and Branches. Immaculate Conception-St. Anthony’s Parish Catholic Church, 11 Lavelle Road. Phone: 845-373-8193. Nonperishable food items. Hours: Third Saturday of each month, 10-10:30 a.m. Residency requirements: No. Volunteers needed: No. Donations needed: Yes.
Amenia Union
Location: The Food of Life/Comida de Vida Food Pantry. St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 40 Leedsville Road. Phone: 845-373-9161. Emphasis on fresh produce and nutritious foods, organic, locally sourced. Bilingual support staff/volunteers. Hours: Fridays, 2-5 p.m. Residency requirements: No. Volunteers needed: Yes. Go to www.stthomasamenia.com to sign up to volunteer. Donations: Yes. For information, email: contactus@stthomasamenia.com
Ancramdale
Location: Neighbors Helping Neighbors Association at the Presbyterian Church Hall, at the intersection of routes 8 and 82. Phone: Jack Lindsey, 518-329-7306 or Hila Richardson, 917-414-8270. Hours: Mondays, 5-6 p.m. Call for an appointment. Residency requirements: Ancram Township. Volunteers needed: No. Donations: Yes.
Copake/Hillsdale
Location: Roe Jan Food Pantry, 2684 State Route 23, Hillsdale. Phone: Betty White, 518-441-2789. Hours: Fridays, 10 a.m.-noon. Emergencies: any time. Residency requirements: Taconic Hills School District, ID suggested. Volunteers needed: Yes. Donations: Yes, at IGA Market, 2628 Route 23, Hillsdale, or to P.O. Box 475, Hillsdale, NY 12529.
Pine Plains
Location: United Methodist Church, 3023 Church St., P.O. Box 511, Pine Plains 12567. Phone: 518-398-7692. Hours: Second Saturday of the month, 10 a.m.-noon. Residency requirements: Pine Plains Central School District, with proof of residency. Volunteers needed: No. Donations: Monetary, food and toiletries. For information, go to www.pineplainsepiscopal.org
Location: Willow Roots Food Pantry, 7730 South Main St. Hours: first and third Saturday of each month, 10-11 a.m. Thrift Store, same hours. The Giving Box at the Pine Plains Library has drinks, snacks and food items. Phone: 518-751-0164. Residency requirements: Pine Plains Central School District. Volunteers needed: Yes. Donations: Yes, send to office at 23 North Main St., or go to www.willowroots.org
Millbrook
Location: Food for Folks, Lyall Memorial Federated Church, 30 Maple Ave. Phone: Emergency Pantry, 845-242-6508 for an eligibility appointment. Meals on Wheels, 845-677-4235, leave a message. First Harvest Pantry, May through October, Tuesdays, 8-10 a.m., until supplies run out. Fresh produce from Stonewood Farm.
Dover
Location: Center of Compassion Food Pantry, 52 Mill St. Phone: 845-877-9076. Assistance available by appointment, Monday through Friday. Offers food items and household supplies. Volunteers needed: Yes. Donations needed: Yes. Supported by a grant from the Regional Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
Lakeville, Connecticut
Location: Corner Food Pantry, 80 Sharon Road. Phone: 860-435-9886. Hours: Distribution is on Friday from 3 to 4:30 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m. Residency requirements: No. Volunteers needed: Yes, from both New York and Connecticut. Go to www.thecornerfoodpantry.org/get-involved to donate or volunteer or call the pantry and leave a name and phone number. Regular drop-off for donations is Friday, 9-10 a.m., but there is a container in the garage.
The refrigeration van at Sun River Health offices in Amenia serves the community as part of the Dutchess County Mobile Food Pantry program.Leila Hawken
Olivia Wickwire, no. 2, tags out a runner at first base. The Webutuck Warriors varsity softball team beat the Germantown Clippers 14-7 at home Friday, April 25.
AMENIA — Webutuck girls varsity softball beat visiting Germantown 14-7 Friday, April 25.
Yelling from the dugout is apparently just as important to the game as throwing. Webutuck players cheered and shouted at their teammates on the field the whole afternoon. Photo by Nathan Miller
The game started off with an early lead from Germantown. The Clippers scored three runs in the first inning.
The Warriors responded in kind with a run of their own in the bottom of the first. The real magic started to come in the second inning, when Webutuck held Germantown with no runs and managed to rack up five in the bottom, brining the score to 6-1 at by the end of the second inning.
Abby Keefer, no. 8, waits at third base for an opportunity to run to home plate. Photo by Nathan Miller
On the mound, Webutuck pitcher Madison Kruger, no. 10, showed great skill dispensing of batters. Kruger struck out 16 batters through the game.
In the fifth inning, Germantown’s batters managed three more runs, spurring the Warriors back into action in the batters box. Webutuck responded with six more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Germantown managed another run in the sixth, but Webutuck scored two more, brining the score to 14-7 going into the top of the seventh.
Webutuck Warriors pitcher Madison Kruger, no. 10, racked up 16 strikeouts during the game.Photo by Nathan Miller
A few hundred feet away the varsity baseball squad played against the boys from Germantown.
The Warriors won that matchup 4-3 after a tie-breaking run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Webutuck pitcher Troy Brazee led in strikeouts with six. Zach Latrell had two and Pearse Williams had one.
AMENIA — The Town Baord signed a resolution bringing an end to a history of litigation between Amenia’s Zoning Board of Appeals and principals of Kent Hollow Mine at a special meeting on Thursday, April 24.
It was a brief meeting with no public discussion before the vote except to make a clarifying change in the resolution’s wording, suggested by the Special Counsel to the town, George Lithco.
Under the conditions of the settlement, Kent Hollow will limit its soil mining work to 33 acres on its 82.3-acre Kent Hollow Road property, as agreed to in a 2017 permit application, and will limit the amount of mined materials to 15,000 yards annually, limiting the amount that may be taken from the property for its own use to 750 yards each month.
Operations are also to be limited to weekdays, with no operations on weekends, holidays or after sunset. The amendment made by Lithco before the resolution’s approval was to indicate that the word “annually” was to refer to a calendar year.
Mining phases are to be limited to five-acre parcels at any one time, with Kent Hollow agreeing to reclaim the mined areas as part of each phase whenever two acres have reached their final grade and are no longer used for mining.
Kent Hollow Mine has operated a small-scale sand and gravel mining operation since first applying for and having been granted a permit in 1978 as a non-conforming use. That original permit expired in 1989. The mine sought to expand operations through a 2016-17 application process.
It then submitted an application to the town of Amenia to increase operations in 2016 but withdrew that application shortly afterward, resubmitting it in February 2017.
The ZBA denied that 2017 application based on the mine’s non-conforming use designation and other issues, leading Kent Hollow to appeal. Litigation suing the town and officials resulted seeing the case considered eventually by the Dutchess County Supreme Court and the Southern District of New York.
During a special meeting on Monday, April 28, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to authorize the settlement that had been agreed to by the Town Board. ZBA members David Menegat and James Wright recused from the vote.
Tim Middlebrook, President of the Columbia Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, left, Amenia Town Supervisor Leo Blackman, center, and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss unveiled a new historical marker at the Old Amenia Burying Ground on Saturday, April 26. The marker commemorates revolutionary war veterans buried at the cemetery where the Red Meeting House once stood on Mygatt Road.
AMENIA — Tim Middlebrook of the Sons of the American Revolution and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss unveiled a new historical marker honoring Revolutionary War vets in the Amenia Burying Ground.
Rain all morning had threatened the event, but historical society members, lovers of history and sons of the revolution persisted and the rain let up just in time.
The gathering at the old burying ground on Saturday, April 26, began with Middlebrook, president of the Columbia Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, talking about the process of acquiring the sign from the Pomeroy foundation. He thanked the Burke family, longtime neighbors of the burying ground, for the work they and their father, Bill Burke, had done with the cemetery.
Bill’s son, Stephen, said he and his father spent a lot of time mapping and cleaning the burying ground. “Putting the stones back up,” he said. “Putting them back up again.”
Stephen said his father had completed a map of the burying ground with the identifiable plots. That was part of Bill Burke and Betsy Strauss’s work with the historical society to find revolutionary war veterans and attain historical recognition for the cemetery.
“It’s pretty impressive, it’s all this poster board that he put together,” Stephen said. “When I first saw it I said ‘wow.’ Then my sister Karen said ‘Oh we’eve already translated all that and into this.’ I thought I had found a hidden gem.”
Tim Middlebrook of the Sons of the American Revolution and Amenia Historical Society President Betsy Strauss told the crowd of neighbors and historical society members about the centuries-long history of the Old Amenia Burying Ground and listed the names of the known Revolutionary War veterans in the cemetery. Photo by Nathan Miller
After Middlebrook’s remarks, the crowd moved into the burying ground for snacks and mingling, where the graves of revolutionary war veterans had been marked with American flags.
Betsy Strauss had lists of the names for visitors:
Col. William Barker
1740-1820
Daniel Bartlett
1755-1837
John Bates
1756-1801
Maj. Simeon Cook
1726-1811
Maj. Robert Freeman
1727-1798
John Garnsey
1734-1799
Robert Hebard
1737-1798
Capt. Job Mead Sr.
1735-1819
Job Mead Jr.
1761-1838
Capt. Abiah Palmer
1758-1834
Capt. Elijah Park
1744-1795
Capt. David Parsons
1748-1812
David Rundall
1757-1848
Samuel St. John
1752-1785
Father Andrew O'Connor
AMENIA — Father Andrew O’Connor celebrated his first Easter at the Church of the Immaculate Conception after arriving in February to serve the parishioners of Amenia, Pine Plains and Millerton.
In an interview with The Millerton News, he commented that Easter was a time to see whole families together and meet young people home from college or prep school. His busy schedule includes masses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and another on Sunday night at Choate Rosemary Hall prep school when he visits his family in Connecticut.
Now that spring has arrived the new priest is enchanted by our rural landscape. “Sometimes I ask myself if I wandered into Austria.”
When asked why he was sent by the New York Archdiocese to Amenia, O’Connor mused that these decisions are never quite clear but that perhaps it was because of his fluent Spanish and love of Guatemala, or maybe his faith in the power of art. O’Connor is a visual artist who believes that the church and art nourish each other. He has a background in literature and the fine arts and is already making plans for a sculpture depicting the Ascension.
His book, “A Tuscan Résumé,” which is available at Oblong Books, describes a brief sabbatical in Florence studying sacred art. In 2000 Father O’Connor founded Sacred Art Heals, a Catholic not for profit, that fosters collaborative projects with local artists in parishes from Mississippi to Paris. His fashion line, Social Fabric, produces organic cotton with natural dyes in Central America for clothing made in the United States. Cameron Diaz modeled his linen shorts in a Vogue feature article.
Father O’Connor discovered his talent for learning languages at an early age — first French, then Spanish, Irish in Dublin, Italian and now he’s studying German. He became ordained in 1996 and served in parishes in the United States, Europe and Latin America. For the last ten years he was pastor of St. Mary’s Church in New York City’s East Village where he was part of a Lower East Side preservation effort. Here he is supportive of reopening St. Patrick’s church in Millerton.