It was a classic windy crisp sunny Fall Day last Saturday simply perfect weather and there were a bunch of events happening all over town. The biggest by far was the Barryville Farmers’ Markets Halloween Party which marks the end of the Markets 2025 and the close of the Markets highly successful sixth year. As in the past, I filled one hundred and fifty treat bags and as I had once again signed up for the Halloween Party’s Trunk and Treat event at the Cul de Sac in Barryville. 

The Market was in full swing with the last of the season vendors with all their gorgeous Fall produce, baked goods, flowers, and plenty of Halloween activities happening. The LMNOP Band was providing the perfect party music. The Market was cheerfully overrun with hobgoblins of every age and variety decked out in wonderful costumes. Then the Halloween Parade of the Tricker Treaters stepped on down River Road lead by the amazing Delaware Company’s Fife and Drum Corps with our neighbor and the Sullivan County Historian John Conway carrying a vintage thirteen-star American flag. The cul de sac was packed with a Highland Lake Fire truck and the Highland Ambulance Service and lots of car trunks filled with candy. It was a fun day to celebrate not only Halloween but our community during these troubled times.

It seems that with the government shutdown dragging on into week three I learned that the food program called SNAP which is run by the federal government will not be distributing funds for the month of November. The Snap Program began in 1939 during the Great Depression and ran until 1943. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy revived a SNAP Pilot Program and a permanent SNAP Program was established by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The current SNAP Program provides food assistance to forty-two million Americans mostly families with children and seniors and people with disabilities. Will this lack of SNAP funds affect us? Surely it will. In addition to have a well-established food panty in Highland at St. Anthony’s Church in Yulan that distributes food twice a month, we also have two outdoor “little food pantries” available. One is located across the street from Pecks Market on Proctor Road in Eldred and the other is in a recycled yellow newspaper box on Route 97 in front of the Barryville Community Church @ 3396 Route 97. As part of my volunteer work, I fill both little pantries and I can tell you the food is flying out of them, and they need restocking two/three times a week.

The reason I am mentioning this is that we need our community to consider buying and donating extra shelf stable foods- pasta and sauce (in cans or plastic bottles) peanut butter and jelly, canned fruits, coffee, tea, instant potato mixes, tuna, soups, and rice. These are the most sought-after pantry items. If you find the little pantries filled, you can leave your donations at The Corner Shop in Eldred. Anyone wanting to sign up for the Saint Anthony’s Pantry which distributes on the first and third Thursdays of each month can call Margie at 845-557-0583.