May 11, 2011
BINGHAMTON — Binghamton University students and leaders of nine local non-profit agencies will meet at 6 p.m. Friday at the Roberson Museum and Science Center, 30 Front St.
They’ll celebrate students’ work through their LEAD 353 service learning course, wherein they partnered with the Broome County Council of Churches and Urban League, Binghamton Youth Bureau, Mom’s House of Endicott, The Humane Society, A Room to Heal, the Roberson and Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments in a variety of projects.
Students scrutinized each group’s strengths and weaknesses to formulate plans for future activities. One of the projects will be chosen for a $2,000 award, allowing the winning team to implement the plan for the organization.
Support for this annual service learning experience is provided by Manley’s Might Mart, which over the course of the program’s 10-year history has committed more than $150,000.
— Valerie Zehl
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Church group honors three volunteers
Written by Valerie Zehl vzehl@gannett.com
May 7, 2011
As services for America's aging population hang on budgetary tenterhooks, the Broome County Council of Churches has an answer already in place.
The Faith in Action (FIA) program is a network of caring people from local congregations, and about 300 community members gathered Friday morning to celebrate their generous spirit at the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel.
Three volunteers were honored at the annual Lives of Commitment Awards Breakfast: Anthony Russo, Gloria Kranefuss and Sam A. Lupo Jr.
Russo, a junior at Newark Valley High School, has been a driving force in the FIA's Ramp It Up program, where young people build access ramps for those with disabilities.
Lupo, president of Sam A. Lupo & Sons, was honored for the scope of his community service.
Kranefuss, at age 84, has a long list of services she still enthusiastically renders. Too overwhelmed to address the audience directly, she read a poem she wrote about her activities and received appreciative chuckles in return: "I've delivered food to people/breakfast lunch and dinner/I try to keep the thin ones/from getting any thinner" and "I'll take you where you want/I don't mind one iota/Just call me up, I'll be right there/you'll hop in my Toyota." The shy, tiny, selfless woman received a standing ovation.
Keynote speaker, Rabbi Rachel Esserman, noted that because of a severe hearing disability, she too needs help sometimes, and hasn't yet encountered a stranger who refused to render it. "Life can be precarious," she said. "We may all need a helping hand" at some point.
More caregivers, fundraisers, mentors and other volunteers are always needed, as is material assistance to build more ramps for local people with disabilities. To learn more about the BC Council of Churches' Faith in Action program, log on broomecouncil.net or phone (607) 724-9130.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
CHOW Advisory Meeting
CHOW COMMITTEE MINUTES February 15, 2011
Plans are being made for the planting season. Seeds have been order. Pruning of the orchard will occur in March. A 7 foot fence will be put in surrounding the tilled area. A bee hive and several bird houses will be place on the property by a local couple. Pumpkins will be planted this spring as a cash crop. Manley’s Mighty Marts has agreed to sell the pumpkins in their stores.
II - HPNAP Grant
The five year cycle HPNAP (Hunger Prevention & Nutrition Assistance Program) grant for our food recovery program Broome Bounty was submitted on February 10th. HPNAP is a program of the New York State Health Department. The grant was for $125,000 and includes funds for a farm manager. This year, the last of the last cycle, Broome Bounty will receive $76,000 from HPNAP.
III - Relationship with Food Bank of the Southern Tier
Negotiations have begun with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier on improving our relationship with them. We are exploring the possibility of becoming either a Redistribution Organization or a Partner Distribution Organization. A meeting will take place in March with Dr. Joe Sellepack, Ed Blaine, and Pat Regan, President of the Council’s Board of Directors, and representatives from the Food Bank and Feeding America.
IV - UPCOMING EVENTS
A. Lupo’s Car Pit on State Street will give half of the cost of spiedies that are purchased on Monday, February 21 to CHOW.
B. Spring Craft Fair – March 19 – BU West Gym
C. Chili Championship – May 7 at BU
D. Cruisin Palloopza – June 24, 25, 26 at Whitney Point Fair Grounds
IV - TRUCK ISSUES
We are still looking for a 17’ refrigerated truck to replace one of our Bounty trucks that is no longer usable.
V – Additional Items
A safe food handling workshop for soup kitchen volunteers will be held at the Council on either May 19 or 26. Ellen DeFay from the Cornell Cooperative Extension will conduct the work shop.
Next Meeting – March 15
Lupo's Promotion
Okay spiedie lovers. On Monday, Feb. 21, when you buy spiedies, either cooked or uncooked, at Lupo's S & S CharPit on State Street in Binghamton, Lupo's will donate have the cost to CHOW.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
M&T Bank donates to food banks
M&T Bank said it donated a total of $8,500 to various food banks to help them with their efforts to fight hunger during the holiday season.
Donations were provided to Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse; Meals on Wheels of Western Broome; Food Bank of the Southern Tier; the Cortland County Area Agency on Aging nutrition program; Roots and Wings program of Chenango County; Loaves & Fishes of Tompkins County; and T.A.C.O. Food Pantry in Bradford County, Pa.
To obtain a charitable grant application, go to mtb.com/community.
M&T, based in Buffalo, has regional headquarters on Exchange Street in downtown Binghamton. The regional headquarters provides management and administrative support for 11 counties in New York and Pennsylvania.
— My-Ly Nguyen
Donations were provided to Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse; Meals on Wheels of Western Broome; Food Bank of the Southern Tier; the Cortland County Area Agency on Aging nutrition program; Roots and Wings program of Chenango County; Loaves & Fishes of Tompkins County; and T.A.C.O. Food Pantry in Bradford County, Pa.
To obtain a charitable grant application, go to mtb.com/community.
M&T, based in Buffalo, has regional headquarters on Exchange Street in downtown Binghamton. The regional headquarters provides management and administrative support for 11 counties in New York and Pennsylvania.
— My-Ly Nguyen
Monday, December 27, 2010
At midnight or morning, Southern Tier Christians gather to celebrate
December 24, 2010, 3:25 pm
By simple subtraction after the diocese closed six churches since 2000, local Catholics had fewer options for Mass on Christmas Eve.
Despite the closings, mergers and other reconfigurations in a massive downsizing, however, Catholics still flocked to traditional midnight Masses on Friday in Broome County.
"We have nothing to show total attendance at midnight or others Masses on Christmas Eve has decreased since we closed churches," said Danielle Cummings, director of communications for the Syracuse diocese, which includes Broome County.
"What we've seen in recent years is Mass at different times on Christmas Eve to accommodate people's needs," added Cummings. "In some cases, the time has changed from the typical midnight Mass or parishes have added earlier Masses."
In recent years, the diocese closed St. Rita in Chenango Forks; St. Stanislaus in Dickinson; St. Joseph and St. Andrew, both in Binghamton; St. Christopher in Castle Creek; and Christ the King in Endwell.
Still, at least 11 remaining Catholic churches in Broome County held traditional midnight Masses: Sts. John & Andrew, St. Mary and St. Patrick, all in Binghamton; Our Lady of Good Counsel in West Endicott; St. Ambrose, St. Casimir and St. Joseph, all in Endicott; Holy Family in Endwell; St. James in Johnson City; Our Lady of Sorrows in Vestal; and Our Lady of Lourdes in Windsor. Mass, either at midnight or earlier, remains important to Catholics, said Cummings.
Christians in the Southern Tier and elsewhere awake today to celebrate Christmas, one of the holiest days in Catholic and Protestant churches.
Most churches observed Christ's birth with an assortment of Christmas Eve services on Friday night. Many included candle-lighting ceremonies to symbolize Christians' belief that Jesus is the "light" of the world who was born in a manger to overcome the "darkness" of sin.
Despite a overall decline in organized religion in the past two decades, Christmas remains a religiously significant observance, according to the Rev. Stephen Starzer, pastor of Conklin Presbyterian Church.
Attendance at the church's two Christmas Eve services has remained steady in recent years, said Starzer.
"You come to the end of the commercialized Christmas and ask, 'There's got to be more to it than this?'" said Starzer, who's been pastor at Conklin Presbyterian for 20 years. "Christmas Eve remains important. People come to give pause, sit, think and hear a different message about Christmas."
Not all Christians celebrate Christmas today, though. Hundreds of Orthodox Christians in the Southern Tier will observe the Feast of the Nativity on Jan. 7. Commonly known as Orthodox Christmas, the date for this celebration is set by the older Julian calendar.
Christmas came early Thursday for inmates at the Broome County Correctional Facility in Dickinson. They received gift boxes from the jail ministries program of the Broome County Council of Churches.
About 450 inmates received gift bags with cookies, chips, tissues, candy canes and other small items donated by local churches, schools and civic organizations, according to the Rev. Cris Mogenson, chaplain.
"This is reaching out to a part of our community that is forgotten a lot of the time, much more so this time of the year," added Elizabeth Hayes, jail ministry re-entry program coordinator.
A white Christmas is unlikely, according to the National Weather Service at Greater Binghamton Airport. The forecast for Christmas is cloudy with a high temperature near 30 degrees. The last significant snowfall on Christmas Day was 12.7 inches recorded on Dec. 25, 2002.
Although the actual day when Jesus was born is unknown, Christmas evolved into a Christian celebration of his birth in the centuries after his death to coincide with secular winter festivals. Christians eventually fixed Dec. 25 as the permanent date for their observance
According to the Association of Religion Data Archives at Pennsylvania State University, roughly 108,200 of Broome County's estimated population of 196,000 residents identify themselves as Christians, including mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Catholics. In Tioga County, about 18,000 people among the estimated population of 51,000 are listed as Christians.
View Article Here
Monday, December 20, 2010
11 Binghamton-area groups receive Gannett Foundation grants
The Binghamton Philharmonic, the United Way of Broome County and Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network are among the 11 Binghamton-area groups that received Gannett Foundation grants this year.
The foundation gives grants to organizations in communities where Gannett Co. Inc. owns a daily newspaper or television station.
Binghamton-area groups received $28,700, while Elmira-area programs received $11,100 and Ithaca-area groups received $10,000.
Local grant recipients included:
* United Way of Broome County: $9,700 for its 2010 campaign
* Binghamton Philharmonic: $2,000 in support of coaching sessions with members of the Binghamton Youth Symphony
* Boys & Girls Club of Western Broome: $2,000 in support of the Triple Play health and wellness program
* Broome County Gang Prevention: $2,000 toward after-school programming at the Tabernacle Youth Center
* Broome County Council of Churches: $2,000 in support of the Youth Initiative Wheel Chair Ramp program
* Catholic Charities of Chenango: $2,000 in support of their Roots & Wings food security pilot program
* Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Tioga County: $1,000 in support of the Incredible Years Parents and Toddler Series
* Kopernik Observatory & Science Center: $2,000 in support of their pilot program to introduce economically disadvantaged preschoolers in Broome County to age-appropriate experiential learning in the physical sciences
* Metro Interfaith Housing Management Corp.: $1,500 toward replacement of the roof at 94 Henry Apartments, located on New Street in Binghamton
* Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network: $3,000 to help provide food for the Parents as Leaders Family Resource Centers' Dinner Bell and Breakfast programs
* Rescue Mission Alliance of Syracuse: $1,500 toward the purchase of furnishings and equipment for a residential facility for homeless men located at 56-58 Whitney Ave. in Binghamton.
Nonprofits interested in applying for a Gannett Foundation grant can get guidelines and an application at www.gannettfoundation.org. Applications will be reviewed twice in 2011. Deadlines for applying are Feb. 15 and Aug. 16.
Contact Jan Lesko at (607) 798-1112 with questions. Grant applications should be sent to Sherman Bodner, president and publisher, Press & Sun-Bulletin, P.O. Box 1270, Binghamton, N.Y. 13902-1270.
View Article Here
Help needed to deliver toys
December 18, 2010, 10:25 pm
Binghamton The Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program needs volunteers to deliver small Christmas gifts for children of local inmates. Call (607) 724-9130 for more information or visit the Council of Churches, 3 Otseningo St., Binghamton. Packages are prepared and waiting, sorted by zip code.
Packages can be left at recipients' doors.
-- Valerie Zehl
View Article Here
"Food For Fines" At Broome County Public Library
By WBNG News
December 20, 2010
Have you been a naughty library patron this year?
Well, for a limited time, you can make nice with the library and a local food pantry at the same time.
Monday, December 20 through Friday, December 31, every non-perishable food item you bring to the Broome County Public Library will get you $1 off your library fines.
All the food will go to the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse. CHOW helps 8,900 families in our community.
The "Food For Fines" program will help you knock down your fines, and also help families in need this holiday season.
For more information, you can call the library at (607) 778-6400.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Donate to CHOW, get free Frosty
December 7, 2010, 6:51 am
All area Wendy’s Restaurants are accepting non-perishable food items for the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse during the month of December. With each donation (one per visit), receive a coupon for a free Frosty, said Patsy Thatcher, marketing and community relations manager for Wendy’s.
— Valerie Zehl
All area Wendy’s Restaurants are accepting non-perishable food items for the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse during the month of December. With each donation (one per visit), receive a coupon for a free Frosty, said Patsy Thatcher, marketing and community relations manager for Wendy’s.
— Valerie Zehl
Letter to the Editor
Judith Arnold, LCSW •Reader Submitted •
December 13, 2010, 11:35 am
First, a thank you to the new editorial writers who have spoken up in compassion and pragmatism for those in our community and nation who are struggling economically. More of the electorate need to take a stand.
Contrary to the rebuttal to Prof. James Petras editorial, there is not a black and white answer to the financial quagmire we are in; it is not either this or I'll refuse that as Jonathan Stossel proclaims about collective sharing at Thanksgiving. These days everyone does not own property, in fact they are foreclosed. However, I would have the prisoners working at the CHOW garden.
The conservative political hypocrisy is particularly hard to take at this holiday season. We have a modern den of thieves in Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Karl Rove and their Wall Street pals. What is it that the tearful, daily Mass attender John Boehner does not get about 30 years of wages that are not livable, offshore bank accounts and the rising poverty level? His neighbors are not going to achieve that American Dream he cries about as long as there are 43,000 applicants for 1,000 KIA jobs in ultra-conservative West Point, Georgia and four more textile plants that closed there last year. The identified 6,000 Southern Tier unemployed know where their bread is not buttered. That is not soft social science Mr. Siwiec. The thieves' apologist Bill O'Reilly asks, “What does a moral society owe to the have-nots?” Jesus threw the moneychangers out.
As former columnist Molly Ivins stated in Dec 2005, “The nation's leaders sure don't act like Christians; some Christians seem to me inclined to lose track of love, compassion and mercy. I don't think I have any special brief to go around judging them, but when the stink of hypocrisy becomes so foul in the nostrils it makes you start to puke, it becomes necessary to point out there is one more good reason to observe the separation of church and state: If God keeps hanging out with politicians, it's gonna hurt His reputation.”
The thieves are so tight with the wealthy plutocracy they did not ask them to anti up any percentage of tax sharing for the common good in NY or Washington in the deficit reduction plan. Nicholas Kristof(NYTimes) reports that, “from 1980-2005 more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent and they are less likely to spend their tax cut or savings. Inequality leaves people on the lower rungs feeling like hamsters on a wheel spinning ever faster, without hope or escape.to me we've reached a banana republic point where our inequality has become both economically unhealthy and morally repugnant.” The American Friends Service Committee reminds us that 59% of the federal budget goes to the military.
I'm sorry Tiny Tim; as Bill Moyers states, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But he's run off with all the toys.” (truthout, Nov 3)
Judith Arnold, LCSW
Friday, December 10, 2010
In Memory of Edward T Gidzinski
The family will receive friends at the Sedlock Funeral Home Inc., 161 Clinton St., Binghamton NY on Fri. evening from 4 to 7 pm. Graveside services will be private. In lieu of flowers kindly make donations to Chow, 3 Otseningo St, Binghamton N.Y. 13903
Published in Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin on December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Mirabito to collect food for CHOW
The public is invited to enjoy pictures, pictures with Santa, raffles and Christmas carols at the event.
A craft station will be available for children to color pictures that will be sent to troops overseas.
The cost of admission is at least one canned food item, which will be donated to Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse.
View Article Here
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
CHOW Benefit Concert - 12/4/2010
The 7th annual Chorus for CHOW Benefit was held at the Sarah Jane Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church Saturday afternoon.
Hundreds filled the pews and listened to holiday music for an excellent cause.
The concert is held annually to raise money for the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse of the Broome County Council of Churches.
CHOW's director says many people are in urgent need of food this holiday season.
"So we're really here to help people who have to face the dilemma, "Do I pay for my heat bill or do I buy food?" And so, we're able to say because of the generosity of this community, "pay your heat bill and we'll give you the food you need," said Ed Blaine, the Director of Chow.
Last year this event raised around $2,000, and the events organizers hope to match that amount this year.
View Video Here View Article Here
Friday, December 3, 2010
Food for Fines at the Broome County Library
Do you have outstanding fees on your account at the Broome County Public Library? For a limited time, you can reduce your fines and help the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW) at the same time! Between December 20 and December 31, you will receive $1.00 off your fines for each non-perishable food item that you bring to the Library. Food items will be donated to CHOW in support of their assistance programs to the 8,900 families served in our community. Help yourself and help CHOW at the same time during this holiday season. For more information, please call the Library at 607-778-6400.
View Article Here
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