Hearts, quotes about love, and the stories of people grateful for the food they received decorated Rye Presbyterian Church on October 19 for Bread of Life’s annual benefit.
Emcee Colleen Margiloff told the crowd of the 63,000 pounds of food rescued weekly by the organization. With ingenuity and the leadership of Pastor Pasquale Falco, Margiloff said, the pantry manages to turn $1 donations into meals for the many food-insecure people in Westchester County. Falco, co-founder with his wife, Sherri, of Bread of Life, which operates out of their Orchard Avenue home, works seven days a week to rescue and deliver food to 14 different food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and senior centers throughout southern Westchester.
Yet the number of food insecure people around the county is going up, Margiloff said, adding that the work of Bread of Life is not done.
“The most critical thing to us at Bread of Life is each individual person,” said Sue Wexler, Director of Community Outreach. “The faces of hunger are men, women, seniors, and children. They could be any one of us. We need each person we serve, each volunteer, and each donor to know they are important to God, and they are important to us.”
Guests at the event were encouraged to understand the group’s mission of “sharing the love of God by loving one’s neighbor, not only by providing food for the food insecure, but also by making the food recipients feel loved and cared for.
For the gala, local restaurants donated deliciously prepared food. The evening was enlivened by a band of Rye High School musicians and the Rhythm on Rye a cappella group.
