Dryden Kitchen Cupboard continues to feed those in need

Cornell University alum Aiden Payne started working for the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard when she was a home economics teacher for Dryden Central School District, later becoming one of the coordinators for the cupboard after retiring from her teaching position.

“I realized that I was a wonderful teacher, and it was my calling,” she said. “In high school, I was told that I could be a teacher, and so, I substitute taught there. And then when I came here, in 1971, I started teaching at Dryden. And I was always interested in feeding people nutritionally, … and that’s how I got involved in Kitchen Cupboard.”

Compared to past years, 2020 was challenging for the pantry, but Payne said staff managed to adjust, and she and others remain committed to its mission in 2021.

When the pandemic first hit the county back in March, the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard was immediately hit with the challenge of adjusting its services to new health guidelines.

“We had a terrible time because we were not the way the Health Department wanted us to be,” Payne said. “So, one of the [people] that was working in Kitchen Cupboard discovered that he was a very talented man in organizing, and he organized us to the fact that we were so well organized and so safe that the Health Department came out and checked us out and said, ‘Oh, other pantries should know about this.’”

As Payne explained, since the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard is located in the garage of the First Presbyterian Church of Dryden, new health requirements meant that staff couldn’t allow residents into the Kitchen due to spacing constraints. So, throughout the pandemic, residents stood at the door of the Kitchen and told staff what they wanted, and staff would gather the items for the residents.

Pylons from the Dryden Village Police Department were periodically filled with food supplies outside every day the pantry was open, and residents and staff had to abide by sanitation standards.

“And now, it’s become normal, as normal as we can be,” Payne said. “And so, that’s how we did the pandemic, from our safety point of view.”

Thanks to other community organizations providing supplies for food-insecure families, the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard didn’t experience a significant uptick in service demand, which helped operations stay stable, Payne said.

One of the more recent projects the Kitchen undertook was its annual Thanksgiving baskets. Typically, kids from surrounding youth groups and schools would help pack baskets for area families for Thanksgiving dinner, but this year, that format had to change.

“We couldn’t do that, and so, we decided to buy the food ourselves,” Payne said. “We sent out a letter to all the churches, the service clubs and that kind of thing, and we asked them for donations. And we actually got enough money to do 139 Thanksgiving baskets.”

Payne said that the response from community members for the Thanksgiving baskets was overwhelmingly positive, attracting more than just the Cupboard’s regulars.

“I taught seventh grade for 22 years, and I had every seventh grader, so I knew a lot of people, but they were people that I had no idea who they were,” she said. “And they were giving us checks. … Especially at Thanksgiving, when [residents] come to Kitchen Cupboard, they say, ‘Thank you for the Thanksgiving basket because we couldn’t have had Thanksgiving without it.’ And that is very satisfying to all of us, to all the people that worked at that giveaway.”

A similar approach was later applied to the cupboard’s Christmas baskets, where staff provided over 30 baskets for families in need.

“It was a completely different situation than we had ever done before, but it worked out very well,” Payne said.

As Payne described, despite any challenges staff faced, there was no question that the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard had to find ways to keep providing its services. And that approach will continue well into 2021.

“The people in Dryden needed food, plain and simple,” she said. “We’re just feeding people, and that’s what we’re intending to do forever and ever. … We’re hoping that we have enough money, and we do right now because people have also donated food and money to Dryden Kitchen Cupboard so that we were able to have a good background of food. So, we’ll do whatever we have to do.”

Payne extended her gratitude to the community for its continued support into the new year.

“Thank you for contributing to the Dryden Kitchen Cupboard,” she said. “We appreciate anything the community wants to do for us.”

The Dryden Kitchen Cupboard is located at the back of the Dryden Presbyterian Church at 6 North St. Once a month, Dryden residents can receive three days’ worth of food. Normal hours are Monday and Friday, 11 a.m. to noon; Wednesday, 5 to 6 p.m.; and Saturday, 11 a.m. to noon.

If you want to donate fresh produce, bread, eggs, anything that needs refrigeration or a large amount of food, please make arrangements with Kitchen Cupboard staff ahead of time. If you want to make a financial contribution, checks and cash can be sent to Dryden Kitchen Cupboard c/o Dryden Presbyterian Church, PO Box 42, Dryden, NY 13053.