Latest news with #FoodBankofCentralNewYork
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shoppers can help provide milk to local families in need by rounding up
CICERO, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — June is National Dairy Month and the American Dairy Association Northeast is teaming up with Price Chopper stores across the region to provide New York-produced milk to families in need. 'The ultimate goal of this campaign is to be able to give milk to food banks because all people need milk to be healthy and grow and this is a great way to connect with our communities and give back,' said Addison Brown, New York State First Associate Dairy Ambassador. It's all part of the Fill a Glass with Hope campaign, geared towards providing state-produced milk to families. From now until the end of June, shoppers at local Price Choppers will be asked to round up at checkout. 'To have a nutritionally balanced meal you need to have dairy products right, and whether that's milk, or a cheese or a yogurt product you know it's all things that are essential, and those are items that the Food Bank of Central New York we cannot receive those from the general public as donations,' said Lynn Hy, Chief Development Officer for Food Bank of Central New York. Campaigns like this make it possible. All of the money raised this month will be given to the Food Bank of Central New York. 'We're able to use those funds to purchase those items and then get them distributed out to our 11-county service area,' said Hy. 'Farmers work 365 days a year, taking care of the land and their cows to be able to produce a wholesome, nutritious product,' said Brown. It also comes at a time when it's needed the most, with children no longer having access to free or reduced school meals as they head into summer break. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal funding cuts have local impact on Food Bank of CNY
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The Food Bank of Central New York is bracing for a potential rise in food prices and possibly more cuts to federal food aid. The food demand remains high in Central New York. 'What we're seeing is a sustained need at levels well above pre-pandemic,' said Brian McManus, Chief Operations Officer at the Food Bank of Central New York. Those levels could likely rise in the coming months, with food prices expected to increase. This comes, after President Trump slapped a 25% tax onto aluminum and steel, which houses canned goods, which is a large percentage of what the Food Bank of Central New York distributes. 'Unless things change where things become more affordable and people have more resources, they're going to continue to rely on that emergency food network,' said McManus. But concerns are now growing after President Trump slashed $1 billion in federal food aid. 'There have been two federal programs run through the USDA that have impacted us directly. The first was the discontinuation of a program called LFPA. That's Local Food Purchasing Agreements and what that was, was funding to food banks to buy food from within their region. For us, within New York State. It was funding we have to purchase directly from New York farmers, from New York growers,' said McManus. However, the LFPA program will no longer continue. 'It will end at the end of the summer, and there will not be a round two. Initially, it was announced that there would be a second round of this funding available, but then the decision was made that that wouldn't be the case,' said McManus. Cuts made to the Emergency Food Assistance Program have also impacted the food bank directly. 'Scheduled deliveries of food between April and July that we had on our calendar were announced that they would not be coming,' said McManus. So far, only a portion of the USDA food shipments the food bank receives have been cut. It's still unknown if further shipments will be canceled moving forward. 'The impact of those truckloads that won't be here through that program is not small. It's 15 truckloads of food; that's pretty significant. That would have been about a quarter million pounds of food that we were expecting to receive that we're not,' said McManus. For now, the organization is hoping things will improve. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The MOST opens new Onondaga Grown exhibit in partnership with the Food Bank of CNY
(WSYR-TV) — There's always fun to be had at the Museum of Science and Technology in downtown Syracuse. Starting this weekend, visitors will have the chance to learn about food grown right here in Onondaga County while they explore the museum. It's part of a new partnership with the Food Bank of Central New York focused on agriculture. Our Tim Fox took us to the MOST for a live look ahead of the new exhibit's unveiling. Tim spoke with Lauren Kochian, MOST president/CEO, Dr. Emily Stewart, MOST senior director of Education & Curation and Karen Belcher, executive director of the Food Bank of Central New York. The GROW exhibit will feature brand new 2,500 square foot installation on the museum's mezzanine focused on agriculture and food systems in Central New York. It will also feature a six-stall farmer's market where visitors can 'buy' apples, corn, eggs, maple and dairy products along with seasonal items. Instead of a currency check out, the scanned items will provide food and nutrition information. In addition, there will be a tractor and trailer photo opportunity where visitors learn about food distribution. The tactile crop field will showcase the 'three sisters', which originated within our local Indigenous communities. This summer, the GROW food distribution center will open, teaching visitors how items go from farms to mass-produced food. The GROW exhibit grand opening is this Saturday, March 29, at the MOST. There will also be a food drive to benefit the Food Bank of CNY this Saturday and Sunday. Learn more at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
30-01-2025
- General
- The Independent
A food bank netted a huge haul of 13,000 fresh salmon. The catch? The fish were still alive
A New York food bank was offered a huge donation of fresh fish this month — but it came with a catch. LocalCoho, a soon-to-close salmon farm in the small upstate city of Auburn, wanted to give 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) of coho salmon to the Food Bank of Central New York, a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of families. But the fish were still alive and swimming in the farm's giant indoor tanks. The organizations would need to figure out how to get some 13,000 salmon from the water and then have them processed into frozen fillets for distribution to regional food pantries. And they'd need to do it fast, before the business closed for good. LocalCoho is ceasing operations this Friday. Thanks to dozens of food pantry volunteers willing to help staffers scoop up the salmon, the team was able to empty the tanks in a matter of weeks and cold pack tons of fish for shipment to a processor. 'The fact that we only had weeks to execute this really ratcheted up the intensity and the anxiety a little bit,' said Brian McManus, the food bank's chief operations officer. 'I knew that we had the will. I knew we had the expertise.' Tackling food waste has been a daunting challenge for years both in the U.S. and around the world. More than one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten and much of it ends up in landfills. On a recent day, workers waded through knee-deep water teeming with salmon to fill their nets. Christina Hudson Kohler was among the volunteers who donned waterproof overalls and gloves to grab the fish-laden nets and empty their contents into cold storage containers. 'It's a little bit different,' Kohler said during a break. 'In the past, my volunteer work with the food bank has been sorting carrots or peppers, or gleaning out in the field.' LocalCoho is a startup that had been piloting a sustainable salmon farming system employing recirculated water. Its facility west of Syracuse had been supplying coho salmon to wholesalers and retailers, including high-end Manhattan sushi restaurants, with the goal of building regional farms across the country. But company officials said they could not raise enough capital to expand and become profitable. Thus, they decided to wrap things up at the end of January. With a shutdown looming, farm manager Adam Kramarsyck said they didn't want the fish to go to waste or end up as biofuel. That's when they reached out to see if the fish could be donated as food. 'It's 'lemonade out of lemons,' I guess is the phrase,' Kramarsyck said. LocalCoho can process about 600 fish a week by hand. But there was less than a month to clear the tanks of many times that number of fish. Enter the food bank. McManus was excited by the offer to land so many fish — and nervous about the challenge. But while the Syracuse-based operation knew how to distribute canned or frozen seafood, they're not set up to handle fresh fish. How could they turn thousands of fish into frozen fillets in a tight time frame? Kramarsyck said it took 'tons and tons of logistics.' The food bank enlisted 42 volunteers to help out. A local business with refrigerated trucks, Brown Carbonic, offered to ship the fish for free to a processor an hour away in Rochester. And LocalCoho staff pitched in to get the job done in time. 'A lot of companies going out of business would just be like, 'Take what you can get, we'll do the best we can.' I mean, they're working extra hard,' said Andrew Katzer, the food bank's director of procurement. The salmon was being processed and quick-frozen. It will be distributed soon among 243 food pantries, as well as soup kitchens, shelters and other institutions in the food bank's network. All told, the catch is expected to yield more than 26,000 servings of hard-to-source protein for the hungry. ' Protein, animal protein is very, very desirable. We know that people need it for nourishment and it's difficult to get. And so this is going to make a very large impact," said McManus. 'I don't anticipate this being here very long,'' he added. "We've had salmon before, but not like this.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A food bank netted a huge haul of 13,000 fresh salmon. The catch? The fish were still alive
AUBURN, N.Y. (AP) — A New York food bank was offered a huge donation of fresh fish this month — but it came with a catch. LocalCoho, a soon-to-close salmon farm in the small upstate city of Auburn, wanted to give 40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms) of coho salmon to the Food Bank of Central New York, a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of families. But the fish were still alive and swimming in the farm's giant indoor tanks. The organizations would need to figure out how to get some 13,000 salmon from the water and then have them processed into frozen fillets for distribution to regional food pantries. And they'd need to do it fast, before the business closed for good. LocalCoho is ceasing operations this Friday. Thanks to dozens of food pantry volunteers willing to help staffers scoop up the salmon, the team was able to empty the tanks in a matter of weeks and cold pack tons of fish for shipment to a processor. 'The fact that we only had weeks to execute this really ratcheted up the intensity and the anxiety a little bit,' said Brian McManus, the food bank's chief operations officer. 'I knew that we had the will. I knew we had the expertise.' Tackling food waste has been a daunting challenge for years both in the U.S. and around the world. More than one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten and much of it ends up in landfills. On a recent day, workers waded through knee-deep water teeming with salmon to fill their nets. Christina Hudson Kohler was among the volunteers who donned waterproof overalls and gloves to grab the fish-laden nets and empty their contents into cold storage containers. 'It's a little bit different,' Kohler said during a break. 'In the past, my volunteer work with the food bank has been sorting carrots or peppers, or gleaning out in the field.' LocalCoho is a startup that had been piloting a sustainable salmon farming system employing recirculated water. Its facility west of Syracuse had been supplying coho salmon to wholesalers and retailers, including high-end Manhattan sushi restaurants, with the goal of building regional farms across the country. But company officials said they could not raise enough capital to expand and become profitable. Thus, they decided to wrap things up at the end of January. With a shutdown looming, farm manager Adam Kramarsyck said they didn't want the fish to go to waste or end up as biofuel. That's when they reached out to see if the fish could be donated as food. 'It's 'lemonade out of lemons,' I guess is the phrase,' Kramarsyck said. LocalCoho can process about 600 fish a week by hand. But there was less than a month to clear the tanks of many times that number of fish. Enter the food bank. McManus was excited by the offer to land so many fish — and nervous about the challenge. But while the Syracuse-based operation knew how to distribute canned or frozen seafood, they're not set up to handle fresh fish. How could they turn thousands of fish into frozen fillets in a tight time frame? Kramarsyck said it took 'tons and tons of logistics.' The food bank enlisted 42 volunteers to help out. A local business with refrigerated trucks, Brown Carbonic, offered to ship the fish for free to a processor an hour away in Rochester. And LocalCoho staff pitched in to get the job done in time. 'A lot of companies going out of business would just be like, 'Take what you can get, we'll do the best we can.' I mean, they're working extra hard,' said Andrew Katzer, the food bank's director of procurement. The salmon was being processed and quick-frozen. It will be distributed soon among 243 food pantries, as well as soup kitchens, shelters and other institutions in the food bank's network. All told, the catch is expected to yield more than 26,000 servings of hard-to-source protein for the hungry. 'Protein, animal protein is very, very desirable. We know that people need it for nourishment and it's difficult to get. And so this is going to make a very large impact," said McManus. 'I don't anticipate this being here very long,'' he added. "We've had salmon before, but not like this.' Michael Hill, The Associated Press Sign in to access your portfolio
