Bargain foods today, thanks, Sarah. In all the struggle, the Pantry Children often don’t have fancy lunch bags as their fellow students do. They are often ridiculed. Sarah found sturdy, inexpensive Paper Bags for school lunches on Amazon. 100 for $9.99. Salad dressing for $2.74. Perhaps we can help.
The newest empty shelf is salad dressings.”That dressing shelf needs help,” said Sarah. She says the Regional Food Bank hasn’t had any available in recent weeks. We hear you.
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Today’s Pantry Requests, Thursday, September 24, 2026.
Wish-Bone Creamy Italian Salad Dressing, $2.74.
Shopday Paper Lunch Bags, 100 Bags, Brown Paper Bag for School, $9.99.
Scott Paper Towels, 100 Double Rolls, $6.84.
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P.S. Once again, Sarah is seeking help with salad dressings; they help families love and want salads. Those shelves are empty:
Amazon Grocery, Thousand Island Dressing, $2.59.
Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise, Sandwich Spread, 3 Pack, $11.88.
Amazon Grocery, Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing, $2.59.
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Picture above: Hannah. She’s the Pantry’s most regular Amazon driver. She is always smiling, and the Pantry volunteers always smile with her. She always brings good news. She lifts big boxes easily. I call her a sunshine person. She comes to our house sometimes to deliver a package.
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Thanks for sending tampons and pads. They won’t last long on the shelves.
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The Pantry volunteers have finally finished unpacking and sorting the avalanche of support you sent over the weekend, including the baby diapers and wipes, tampons, and pads. Thank you, thank you; you saved what looked like a lot of empty shelves for the week. Sometimes the Pantry needs only three or four items to fill its shelves for two or three days. We did better than that, thanks.
A Feeding America report covering Eastern NY (including the Pantry’s area) put it starkly: 1 in 6 kids — over 98,000 children — are food insecure, and the reason that’s repeatedly cited is federal SNAP cuts, with the Regional Food Bank CEO estimating 44% of people currently facing hunger locally could lose SNAP eligibility. That’s pushing more families toward pantries, just as USDA product supplies to food banks won’t be enough. More cuts were announced yesterday.
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New: According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Diesel Fuel in the Northeast is averaging about $6.529 a gallon today, the highest in its history.
This will significantly affect traffic to food pantries throughout the Pantry area; it is already driving more and more people to them for food. Farmer and truck traffic are both especially hard hit.
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Maria and Candy working together when the Food Bank truck needs to be unloaded. Their deliveries are 46 per cent lower than usual.
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Joy feels really good, never better than when we love someone other than ourselves.
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