Freezers, Refrigerators Delivered To Help East End Food Pantries

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — All for the East End, a not-for-profit focused on helping to "Feed the Need" during the coronavirus pandemic, delivered refrigerators and freezers to local food pantries recently.

According to AFTEE, the COVID-19 crisis has created unprecedented challenges to food pantries faced with escalating need; one critical issue has revolved around finding refrigerator and freezer capacity to store deliveries of fresh meat, poultry and produce.

AFTEE members reached out to Southampton town officials, who offered a storage room off the kitchen in the Bridgehampton Senior Center; the Bridgehampton Lions Club also stepped up to foot the bill for the five units and made a donation to AFTEE for $10,945, official said.

The Sag Harbor Pantry, Bridgehampton Pantry and the Bridgehampton Child Care Center will use the units to help keep the food stored properly.

“The Town of Southampton is pleased to support this effort and provide space at the Bridgehampton Senior Center for the refrigerators and freezers for the pantries during this time of need,” said Southampton Town Housing and Community Services Director Diana Weir.

The project is a great example of how AFTEE benefits the community, said AFTEE President Claudia Pilato. “Because AFTEE is in touch with pantries across the East End we are able to identify similar challenges. Providing refrigeration with the help of the Bridgehampton Lions Club, at a shared site, was a real collaboration that is both efficient and cost effective.”

"We know the pantries are working overtime to help many in our community get through this terrible time," John Battle, president of the Bridgehampton Lions Club, said.

The results will be tangible: The refrigerator and freezer will double food capacity,” Tom White, executive director of the Bridgehampton Food Pantry, said. “It’s a godsend to receive such a wonderful set-up, especially at such a strange time in our world.”

Bonnie Michelle Cannon, executive director of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, said she was grateful the community came together to help. “We are all in this together," she said, adding that she'd seen an increase in need. "We went from serving 70 people a month before the pandemic to serving 700 individuals a week during the pandemic, with no end in sight.”