Port Jervis Food Pantry Helps Families in Need During Hard Times

Local residents line up to get food from the Easterseals Project Discovery food pantry in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Port Jervis resident Mary Capobianco seldom seeks help at a food pantry, but as Christmas comes closer, she has found herself waiting in line at a local charity for some eggs.

This was the last food pantry for the year by the nonprofit Easterseals’ Project Discovery. The local project has operated in Port Jervis for almost 20 years.

Mary Capobianco at the Easterseals Project Discovery food pantry in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

“I came here this year because times are hard,” Capobianco told The Epoch Times on Dec. 19. “I went into a local store just to get eggs, and a dozen were $7—that’s a lot of money.”

Capobianco has tendinitis in both hands and lives on workers’ compensation payments.

New York State Fraternal Order of Police Secretary Lauren Holz volunteers to give out food at the Easterseals Project Discovery food pantry in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Barbara Kuczyra, the longtime project coordinator, told The Epoch Times that inflation and the rising cost of goods had sent many to the food pantry for the first time.

Typically, the project’s last food pantry before Christmas serves between 400 to 500 people. This year, the number reached 700 people or 240 households, she said.

The pantry is open on the third Monday of each month.

Port Jervis Police Chief William Worden holds a box of turkeys at the Easterseals Project Discovery food pantry in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Port Jervis resident Michele Aduleit came to the pantry for her Christmas shopping.

“Our Christmas tree would be empty if we didn’t have this place,” Aduleit said. “I have children at home that would be very disappointed if I didn’t have gifts for them.”

Samantha Quick and her daughter at the Easterseals Project Discovery food pantry in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Another local resident Samantha Quick got a bag of toys for her three children.

“We want to get something for them, and this is really nice,” she said.

Quick’s boyfriend is the sole breadwinner, and the family struggles. They had to let go of their only car four months ago because they couldn’t keep up with the payments and gas prices, she said.

Though the food pantry opens its doors only once a month, the project makes some food or supplies available outside its facility almost every day.

Port Jervis resident Melanie Zubl said, “Sometimes on a regular day I don’t have certain things, and I come. They might have milk or coffee or just toilet paper. They are really awesome people.”

“If it weren’t for this place and Barbara, there would have been many times that I had nothing,” she said.

A group of volunteers with the 10th Manhattan Masonic District delivered toys to the Project Discovery food pantry in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

All toys at the pantry—about 300 hundred—were delivered by the 10th Manhattan Masonic District members via a pickup truck.

The New York State Fraternal Order of Police members helped deliver turkeys and hand out food.

Port Jervis local police helped people get stuffed bags into their cars.

Barbara Kuczyra at her office in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Kuczyra said of the support she got from various organizations, “I can’t think of anything other than this is a wonderful community that volunteers to help people who are needy.”