Pantry: a room or closet in which food, groceries, and other provisions, or silverware, dishes, etc., are kept.
The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry: So much more than that.
On a recent rainy morning, women, men, and children trickled toward the line winding around United Methodist Church in the heart of Mount Kisco.
It was time to grocery shop. The price? Zilch.
Serving 21 Northern Westchester communities, this “choice food pantry” has evolved in its 33-year history into a dignified, pleasant, fresh, and culturally relevant grocery shopping experience for the growing number of area residents with food insecurity.
More than 110,600 people used the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry’s services in the 2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30. And 495 volunteers worked alongside staff to distribute almost 960,000 pounds of food.
“I love that they have fruit here, like pears, apples, bananas, grapes, and cherries,” says shopper Leonisia Lemos, a mother of three children. Using the food she gets from the pantry, Lemos enjoys making her family a black bean, rice, and chicken soup with potatoes, carrots, and onions.
September is Hunger Action Month, a time to recognize that — despite this county’s wealthy reputation — one in three households are at risk of hunger, according to Feeding Westchester, the nonprofit organization that partners with many local and national food programs. The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry purchases food from Feeding Westchester at a discount, as well as from other sources, and also receives food donations from local businesses, farms, and even household gardens.
“Who doesn’t love fresh tomatoes, especially when they’re from a local market or backyard?” says Kelley Housman, a pantry board member for nine years. The need for help with groceries stems from a range of issues, from job loss and other financial setbacks to illness or simply wages not keeping up with cost inflation.
“People come, and when they don’t need us, they don’t come, and sometimes they make donations. We see that experience full circle,” Housman says. “We’ve all learned we cannot judge anybody else’s experiences, especially not based on appearances.”
As school begins this fall, more than 62,000 children in the county will rely on low-cost or free school meals for the food they need to grow and learn, according to Feeding Westchester. The Mount Kisco-based pantry fed more than 28,800 children and more than 12,000 senior adults in fiscal 2024.
“People say to us that they do this, and then they have money for rent, kids’ shoes, and utilities,” says Roberta Horowitz, pantry operations and program director, who started volunteering with the pantry in 2004. “They also say we have culturally relevant foods.”
These residents experiencing food insecurity have cultural ties to 20 countries on every continent, notes Christian Ayala, assistant director of operations and the official DJ. Since Ayala joined the team in 2020, he’s added music to enhance the shopper experience, playing anything from reggaeton, merengue, and salsa to cumbia, bachata, and 1980s rock at closing time, like the 1986 “The Final Countdown” song by Swedish rock band Europe.
To be as accessible as possible and offer food that guests will actually cook, the pantry has conducted surveys about barriers to entry and the food itself. “We want to be as diverse as possible, food-wise, to provide food for many cultures,” Ayala says. Hominy, for example, shares space with brown rice, and there are a variety of beans in bags or cans. There are eight people on a Neighbors Council to discuss their culture’s food and recipes. The results show up in the sourcing strategies and in the recipes and programs offered at the pantry.
How It Works
The pantry is open for shoppers two days a week to feed almost 700 households: Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, and Wednesday evening. Shoppers don’t have to prove their low income, but they need to show identification and be registered.
“We don’t ask intrusive questions,” Housman says. “The instance of people taking advantage or taking more than they need is so minute.” Housman hears shoppers say no to a food item sometimes because they still have some left from the previous week.
Each guest’s scannable tags are color-coded for their family’s size. Shoppers walk to the window to be scanned and then continue around the back of the building to the pantry entrance, where they arrive with reusable grocery bags.
First, everyone receives a pre-made bag of produce. Then, they can choose more fresh produce from the tables that resemble a farmers’ market.
First up on this morning were russet potatoes from Williams Farms in Marion, NY. As volunteer Maria Nieves handed potatoes to shoppers who paused in front of her table, she called the root vegetable by the common name for that shopper: potato, papa, patata, or batata, for instance. “I say whatever it is in their culture. It’s a very high Spanish-speaking community, and I’m bilingual, so I can use my skills to help,” Nieves says.
Then were amaranth greens, one of the richest sources of vitamin C, among other nutrients. As for produce, Fuji and McIntosh apples share space with deep-purple beets, okra, jalapenos, gleaming eggplant, cucumbers, pints of rainbow-colored cherry tomatoes, and bunches of fragrant basil, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.
Shoppers arrive at the bakery table laden with scones, single-serving apple pies, blueberry muffins, and chocolate chip cookies. Local businesses, such as Mount Kisco Bagels, donate twice a week, Horowitz says. Shoppers can choose one bakery item, and the same goes with the section of small, sundry items, such as spice blends, canned pumpkin, sauce mixes, and children’s squeezable fruit smoothie pouches.
During the summer, there are supplies for children’s lunches, part of a 10-week SOS program to help feed students who normally participate in the school free lunch program.
When shoppers walk down the hall, the music grows louder. To the right, a volunteer sits behind a table with children’s books. A child can take one book per visit. On this day, a little girl with her father selected a Clifford the Dog board book.
At the end of the hallway, a big-screen TV shows announcements and recipes. A door to the left leads to another large room with grocery aisles of shelf-stable items, with sections for rice, pasta, beans, sauce, canned fruits and vegetables, cereals, and nut butters. A volunteer stands at each section to help and ensure that shoppers pick the number of items that matches their color-coded tag based on family size.
At the end, near checkout, sits cartons of eggs, milk, chicken, and beef.
To be even more accessible, the pantry also delivers food to at least 70 homes, mostly homebound seniors.
A Community of Support
Many organizations, programs, and businesses are involved, such as Northern Westchester Hospital, Westchester Library System, Sustainable Westchester, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Stop & Shop in Mount Kisco, several DeCicco’s locations, and Trader Joe’s in Yorktown.
A nutritionist from Cornell Cooperative Extension sometimes conducts cooking demonstrations, a SNAP educational program, when an ingredient isn’t moving in the pantry. “She’ll make a recipe with it and talk about the nutrition,” Ayala says.
The goal is to create an environment where people feel relaxed, welcome, and not judged, staff and volunteers say. Some of the board members have even been shoppers in the past.
After all, in fiscal year 2022, food prices increased by 9.9 percent nationwide, faster than in any year since 1979, and they’re not going down, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Food-at-home (grocery) prices increased by 11.4 percent that year, while food-away-from-home (restaurant) prices increased by 7.7 percent. Overall food prices rose again in fiscal year 2023 by 5.5 percent, and up again by 2.9 percent in fiscal year 2024.
“There’s no shame in needing help,” Ayala says.
The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry
300 Main St, Mount Kisco; 914.610.5187
Related: The Sharing Shelf Combats Clothing Insecurity in Westchester
