OLEAN, NY (Oct. 9, 2024) – A $25,000 grant to the Olean Food Pantry from an anonymous local family foundation is a challenge for more community donations.

Olean Food Pantry received the grant Friday toward its $1 Million Fundraising Campaign announced earlier this year. The grant urges additional funding from the community entering the holiday giving season, OFP officials said.

“This grant is a major step toward addressing unprecedented levels of hunger in our communities,” said David Potter, Olean Food Pantry Board President. “We entered this year with a goal to address a 95.4 percent increase in pantry clients since 2020. That need has officially more than doubled since then. We seek community solutions to community problems, which aren’t tied to politics or other issues.”

OFP targets the upcoming Cattaraugus Gives Day on Dec. 3 to meet the $25,000 community match requirement.

OFP’s $1 Million Fundraising Campaign was launched to commemorate the organization’s 70th anniversary. It aims to meet the growing demand for food assistance over the next decade so it can nurture relationships with other community organizations to solve systemic poverty issues.

The grantor, Potter said, is choosing to remain nameless because the local hunger issue “needs no heroes – only solutions.” The $25,000 grant is to prompt “shared responsibility” from those with the capacity to give in communities served by Olean Food Pantry.

“Each week, we’re astounded by the volume of people here,” Potter said. “Many of them are coming for the first time. Economics and job realities in our communities leave people with nowhere else to turn far more often than people might recognize.”

According to Feeding America, 40 percent of Americans are just one missed paycheck away from hunger. One job layoff – or even a brief unpaid sick leave – is enough for families to seek assistance at the local food pantry.

Meanwhile, Olean Food Pantry works each week to serve the growing need. The faces of hunger in local communities aren’t stereotypical, Potter said. Olean Food Pantry regularly serves record numbers of people from Cattaraugus, Allegany and Chautauqua counties.

“A lot of people don’t realize we’re not only serving Olean,” Potter said. “Our small city is a hub for commerce and resources. People often visit while doing errands from as far away as Andover in Allegany County or even Dunkirk in Chautauqua County. Poverty isn’t always people sleeping on park benches. It’s often families between jobs with children to feed or even recent college graduates awaiting an opportunity.”

Since the anonymous grant, community member Joe Higgins gifted a $1,000 check. Olean’s Neighborhood School of Dance also donated $624 from its recent schoolwide drive.

A key fundraising goal is to address poverty and hunger before they become an issue for families, Potter said.

“We’re so happy that this campaign is gaining momentum,” he added. “People understand that hunger is a problem – but it’s also a symptom and cause of even bigger problems. Poverty and hunger are vicious cycles.”

Nearly 25 percent of Western New Yorkers face food insecurity, according to this year’s New York State Department of Health Report on Food Insecurity. That hunger rate rivals urban and rural areas alike across the state and nation. Funds raised will help secure additional resources, stock shelves and allow the pantry to focus on long-term solutions that address root causes of hunger in the region.

Cash donations allow Olean Food Pantry to purchase 66 percent more food than non-perishable donations alone, thanks to preferred nonprofit rates with regional food banks, grocers and farmers, Potter said.

To donate, visit www.oleanfoodpantry.org/donate.