The Lord's Pantry Mission Statement

The Lord's Pantry, a non-denominational, non-profit organization, is the first meal delivery service for people suffering from AIDS in Westchester. It was founded and incorporated in June of 1991 by three mothers who lost their sons to this deadly disease. Our mission began and still is to provide "home-cooked meals" high in nutritional value to HIV+ clients, PWAs, their caretakers and children. Our first meals started with restaurant contributions. We soon moved to St. Bernard's Church in White Plains where we share a kitchen. We began delivering three meals a day, Monday through Friday, including most holidays. Since that first meal in June of 1991, we have delivered over 700,000 meals throughout the county.

Our clients are referred to us from ARCS, Hospitals, Department of Social Services, and clinics that are familiar with our work. Each referring professional sends us documentation of that referral which enables us to feed them immediatly .  We also ask our clients to fill out a client information sheet.

We have had TV and newspaper exposure; have our own brochure and our own video for cable. We speak at churches and schools and have taken part in AIDS AWARENESS Programs all over the county. We do refer clients to ARCS, HIV support groups, and to Meal Delivery services in Peekskill and Yonkers.

Although The Lord's Pantry is based in White Plains, we also deliver to New Rochelle, Eastchester, Mamaroneck, Port Chester, Mount Vernon, Elmsford, Ossining, Hartsdale, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, Mount Kisco, and Bedford Hills. We try to go wherever we are needed.

Unfortunately, our client numbers are growing. The Lord's Pantry's time starts at 2:30 to 3:00 PM every afternoon, Monday through Friday. The cook has to move to prepare 100 to 120 dinners and have them ready for pick-up and delivery by volunteers at 5:00 PM. With the hot meals we send a cold bag with breakfast, lunch, milk and other goodies. The bags are labeled, organized, meat sliced, sandwiches made, dessert, rolls and salad packaged and placed into the cold bags (with extra food each day for the weekends). Last but not least the hot dinners are dished out, packaged and place in hot bags with "assembly-line" precision, ready for the volunteers to pick up and deliver to their assigned routes.

Funded mainly by the Ryan White Title I CARE Program, we also receive funding from corporations and private contributions.

We are now in our TENTH year of operation and one thing is certain - AIDS is not going away. We will be here to help as long as we are needed.