Up until about a month ago I was one of the happy cooks for the Hudson Salvation Army Service Center, the only soup kitchen in Columbia County that serves lunches five days a week. Once Covid-19 slammed New York, being in a high-risk group, I had to self-quarantine (a loss only to myself).
The good news: lunches continue nicely without me, cooked by excellent unemployed chefs from Hudson's high-end restaurants. Instead of the former sit-down lunches held inside, however, the hot meals are boxed up and distributed individually outside. The center also still holds its food pantry on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 8:00 to 10:00 am. On these days, two long tables are set up with bags on each containing meat, produce, and dry goods. Every family can take all three bags.
Until a month ago, generous local supermarkets and farms donated enough food, with a stockpile supplemented by the Regional Food Bank, to provide for the Center's lunches, the pantry, and often extra for other local pantries.
The bad news: Now, everything has changed. Within a week of the virus striking New York, the number of lunches increased from an average of 30 to 60 a day. And, as viral cases and unemployment increase, so are these numbers. (For example, today, a month later, 65 people came to pick up lunches.) More families are also taking food from the pantry, from about 45 to 55 on each pick-up day.
The Center is in trouble, with insufficient meat and dry goods on days with high demand. Mothers are coming in asking for diapers and formula, which the Center doesn't ordinarily carry. The staff is working with Social Services to deliver food to the motels that house the homeless. Unfortunately the Center doesn't have the capacity to continue with these services without additional resource.
So what can people do? First, the Center could always use donations of dry goods (pasta, soups, sauces, non perishables). One can drop off bags in front of the Salvation Army Service Center at 40 South 3rd Street, Hudson Monday-Friday between 8:00 and 1:00.
Second, and more important, the Center needs emergency funds for food when it runs out, for gas for the delivery van, and for the diapers, formulas, and other non-food items that people now need. The Center Director would also like to give out gift cards at the pantry for milk, which is too heavy to carry. You can donate online or send a check to the Salvation Army, PO Box 746, Hudson NY 12534 or drop it off at 40 South Third Street.
