LOWVILLE — A Utica organization dedicated to helping feed veterans has gotten a boost from Lewis County residents and organizations.
Feed Our Vets President Stephen M. Amaral said all the help has been much appreciated, particularly given an increase in demand this year.
“We’re already at this year what we gave out last year,” he said during a recent stop at the Northern Regional Center for Independent Living office here.
Mr. Amaral was in town to present certificates of appreciation to NRCIL and Theresa M. Decker, outreach coordinator of the organization’s Community Connections program, for establishing a Feed Our Vets drop-off spot for non-perishable food items at its North State Street office.
“NRCIL’s probably fed 10 people for a week per month to date,” he said.
A collection spot for Feed Our Vets has also been established at Forest Presbyterian Church in Lyons Falls, and a scrap metal drive was held on Saturday, Oct. 11, in partnership with Otis Technology, also in Lyons Falls.
“Somebody brought in a lathe from the 1890s,” Mr. Amaral said.
Several Otis employees also volunteered to drive around and collect scrap metal from local residents, and roughly 1,200 pounds was collected during the event, he said.
The Kenmax Foundation over the summer also sent several loads of fresh produce and flowers from its Maris Farm in the town of Leyden to the Utica pantry.
Feed Our Vets operates a food pantry at 205 Genesee St. in Utica and a mobile pantry that holds a distribution in Watertown from 9 a.m. to noon on the third Saturday of each month.
The organization was formed to “help veterans in the United States, their spouses and children, whose circumstances have left them on the battlefield of hunger and to involve the public in fighting veteran hunger.”