PLATTSBURGH — 2024 was a turning point for the Plattsburgh Interfaith Food Shelf from a financial standpoint.
“The number of clients were up about 2.7 % over 2023,” Dorothy Latta, Food Shelf coordinator, said.
“That was a 14% increase over 2022. The main thing that we are pleased with in 2024 is addressing the financial issues that we were experiencing.”
Over the last five years during the pandemic, the Food Shelf received very generous donations from the community.
“The number of clients were down a bit, mostly because people were staying at home,” she said.
“Because we had this extra money, we felt people had given it to us to provide food. So we increased the amount of food that we gave people. That came back to cause a little bit of a problem for us because the cost of food really increased quite dramatically.”
In 2020, the Food Shelf calculated it paid 0.26 cents per pound for food from the Regional Food Bank. In 2022, costs increased to .81 cents per pound. In 2023, costs jumped to $1.05 per pound.
“All of a sudden we were getting slammed since 90% of our money goes to buy food. That’s really the only place we could try to cut costs,” Latta said.
“Last year, we took on several measures. We looked at some of the different foods we were offering clients and made several decisions to eliminate some things that were not essential food, such as we used to offer pancake syrup to go with the pancake mix. We stopped buying pancake syrup.”
Staff assessed selections in different categories. For example, canned pineapple was more pricey than other fruit options and was eliminated. This revamping required balancing nutritional requirements, the organization’s mission, while prudently eyeing the bottom line.
“The second prong of what we did we decided was that we needed to try to raise some more money,” Latta said.
“Really what brought this around was in 2022, with the cost of food going up so much, we had a deficit — income versus expenses — we ended up with a deficit of $107,000. In 2023, the deficit was $130,000.”
In 2024, fundraising initiatives included a golf tournament and a pickleball tournament.
“Last year, by doing that, we ended up being in the black,” Latta said.
“We were (up by) $47,000. We kind of turned that around a bit. That still means between 2022 and 2024, we had deficit of $250,000. But we feel like we took the responsibility to try to address what we could did. We didn’t just want to ask for money without trying to do anything ourselves. So from that perspective, in 2024, I feel like we have started to turn that big wheel of expenditures.”
The Food Shelf’s next Drive For Food Golf Tournament will be held Sept. 12 at the Harmony Golf Club and Community in Port Kent.
“Last year was the first time we ever did it, and it was very, very well received and supported by the community,” she said.
“We had a number of golfers that said ‘Oh, we’ll be back next year.’”
Things are not slowing down at the Food Shelf located at the Plattsburgh United Methodist Church at 127 Beekman St.
January is one of its busiest months.
“My speculation is that people might have spent some money for the holidays,” Latta said.
“Bills are starting to come in. Heating expenses sometimes crank up. So January, historically, has very often been one of the busiest months for us. It’s not a case where everything is all rosy for us. That’s clearly still a need out there. Even if the numbers increase only 2.6 % over last year, they are up 14% over 2022.”