LOCH SHELDRAKE - SUNY Sullivan hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, October 22, to formally open the SUNY Sullivan Food Pantry, which offers a variety of food, toiletries, and weekly fresh vegetables from SUNY Sullivan Community Garden and Hope Farm to the SUNY Sullivan community.

The new Food Pantry—a partnership of the Episcopal Diocese of New York Campus Ministry, Delaware Catskill Episcopal Ministry, and SUNY Sullivan—opened earlier this year in response to the increased food and financial insecurity faced by students and staff as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants and attendees included SUNY Sullivan President, Jay Quaintance, State Senator Mike Martucci, Sullivan County Legislator Michael Brooks, New York Episcopal Diocese Assistant Bishop Rt. Rev. Mary D. Glasspool, Canon Missioner of the Delaware Catskill Episcopal Ministry Rev. Diana Southwick Scheide, Delaware Catskill Episcopal Ministry Vicar, Rev. Jean-Pierre Seguin, SUNY Sullivan student Adonis Morano, and SUNY Sullivan Trustees Lyman Holmes, Penny Coombe, and Nichole Connal.

While SUNY Sullivan had maintained a small food pantry for students in the Student Activities Office, the dramatic increase in food and financial insecurity experienced by the college community during the pandemic required an urgent and broader effort. Established with the generous financial support of the Ulster Savings Charitable Foundation and SUNY Ulster Food Pantry—as well as donations from the Research Foundation for SUNY, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Sullivan County, SUNY Sullivan Community Garden, and St. John’s Caring Hands Food Pantry, Monticello—the food pantry now has a dedicated room (B105), a refrigerator and stand-alone freezer, and is open two days a week and by appointment. Other community-supported efforts to help ease food insecurity on campus during the pandemic included the SUNY Sullivan Foundation starting a Food Insecurity Fund in Spring 2020 with an internal donation of $10,000. That funding—enhanced by a $5,000 donation from the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan and additional donations by college staff—has enabled the Student Activities Office to support students in need with $100 grocery/gift cards, as well as meals during the holiday season.

The SUNY Sullivan Food Pantry offers non-perishable food, toiletries, as well as weekly fresh vegetables from SUNY Sullivan Community Garden to the SUNY Sullivan community on an as needed basis. Available food includes canned vegetables, beans, pasta, cereals, granola bars, snacks, frozen chicken, almond milk and other shelf-safe beverages, among other items. Waller-Frederick said that the Pantry welcomes all donations, but the Pantry is particularly in need of toiletries, such as full-size shampoo, conditioner and body wash, as well as hand soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, feminine products, baby wipes, diapers and other personal products.

The Food Pantry is located in room B105 and is open Wednesday and Thursdays from 12-3 p.m. and by appointment. Donations of toiletries and non-perishable, unexpired food are welcome (and can be delivered to the pantry during open hours). Monetary donations are preferred so that Food Pantry staff can purchase and stock up on food and other items most in need.

Monetary donations can be dropped off at or mailed to the SUNY Sullivan Student Activities Office, Room H122, 112 College Road, Loch Sheldrake, NY 12759. Checks should be made out “SUNY Sullivan FSA” with “food pantry” written in the memo. Food and toiletry donations can be dropped off at the Student Activities Office, or at the Pantry on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12:00–3:00 p.m.

For more information about the food pantry, please email foodpantry@sunysullivan.edu.