'Apple-a-Day’ Fund-Raiser for Food Pantry
Vicki Littman, the proprietor of the Vicki’s Veggies farm stand in Amagansett, will launch this year’s “apple” fund-raiser to benefit the East Hampton Food Pantry on Saturday. To date, the effort, now in its fifth year, has raised more than $40,000 and meets a critical need, one that the farm stand’s customers are often unaware of.
“Since summer is extremely busy at the stand, I needed to create a fund-raiser that was simple and effective,” Ms. Littman, the food pantry’s chairwoman, said. “The ‘apple a day keeps hunger away’ campaign began.”
Year-round residents are well aware of the need, Ms. Littman said. In March alone, the food pantry served more than 3,400 people from 1,260 households between Montauk and Wainscott. “During the winter months we spend over $3,000 per week buying food,” she said. “We feed up to 400 families per week, which is over 30,000 individuals per year.”
The fund-raiser, which will continue through Thanksgiving, helps to educate visitors to the South Fork. “It’s the summer community that we haven’t really reached yet,” Ms. Littman, who started the stand when she was 11, said. Customers are “shocked to hear that we have a pantry and how many people we feed. They think we live in one of the wealthiest communities, and yet there is such a great need.”
Seasonal workers lose much, if not all, employment opportunities each year, she said, yet “housing, electric, food, and gas are very expensive, and they have little income until the next season begins. The more people that know about it,” she said of the panty, “the more that will get involved.”
With a donation of $1, a customer can write his or her name on a green paper apple; for a $5 donation, the apple is red. All are displayed at the stand. “Most customers donate more, and I have one customer who donates at least $5,000 each year,” Ms. Littman said. Starting this year, donors will also receive a real apple. Bridgehampton National Bank has gotten involved and is an annual supporter of the campaign, she said.
The food pantry is based at 219-50 Accabonac Road in East Hampton. An Amagansett satellite is open from October through April at the senior citizens housing complex at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church on Montauk Highway. “It’s hard to find a lot of volunteers,” Ms. Littman said.
As a member of the food pantry’s board, she said, “we are always trying to raise awareness and money for the pantry.” Donations to the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit pantry can also be made at EastHamptonFoodPantry.org and by mailing a check to P.O. Box 505, East Hampton 11937. Ms. Littman would also like to initiate a summer fund-raising event; those interested in helping in that effort can call 324-2300.
“I am blessed to live in this community because there are so many people that want to help their neighbors in need,” Ms. Littman said. “Because of their generosity, the East Hampton Food Pantry is able to continue to feed those in need each week.”