By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

Dec. 3, 2025: At a time of year filled with joyful family gatherings and plentiful meals, it’s also important to remember our neighbors who cannot share in the same abundance, as the winter holidays often cast an even brighter light on the realities of hunger.

Thinking of our neighbors in this season of gratitude for all that we share together in the Village, the Village Trustees, the Police Department and our DPW, in conjunction with the Community Fund, the Reformed Church and the Bronxville School decided to unite and inaugurate the first ever Village wide food drive which we hope will be an annual occurrence.

The partnership was just a result of serendipitous conversations on my walkabouts in the Village and going forward we welcome any and all other Village institutions who would like to collaborate with us.

Food Drive Dates and Donation Locations

The food drive will begin December 3 and extend through December 14 with donation locations at the Bronxville School for our students as well as Village Hall, the Reformed Church and in the alcove on Pondfield Road in front of the Wine and Spirit store. In particular demand are canned meats, fish, beans and vegetables, cereals, pasta and rice, peanut butter and most needed, baby formula.

Donations Will Go to Feeding Westchester

All our donations will go to Feeding Westchester, a highly professional and efficient umbrella organization based in Elmsford that has a network of nearly 300 community partners and programs that serve an average of over 250,000 hungry Westchester residents each month. This translates on a yearly basis to providing 222,000,000 pounds of food for 18.4 million meals for our neighbors.

Due to the incredible demand, Feeding Westchester is in constant need of increasing access to food supplies, fostering new partnerships and looking for help from folks like us. We just decided it was time to act as a community as it is almost incomprehensible that in our county, which ranks in the top five nationally as to wealth, one in three residents are food insufficient and the number has grown exponentially since Covid.

Feeding Westchester has programs in soup kitchens, food pantries, schools, shelters, residential programs and mobile distribution vehicles.

Why this Food Drive is So Important 

Two in five area households are at risk for hunger in Westchester with 44% of folks in these homes routinely skipping a meal.

It is imperative that we help our youngest neighbors as it is documented that food-deprived children in their first three years of life have evidenced slower brain structure growth. The results are indisputable that a hungry child has less energy and ability to focus in school affecting cognitive, motor, social and emotional skills, which result in lower academic scores.

Conversely, students who are properly nourished have stronger attendance, higher test scores, and better graduation rates. Compounding this learning deficit is proven instances of higher rates of juvenile diabetes, iron deficiency, high cholesterol levels, obesity and even high blood pressure among our youngest citizens.

Many of our school-aged children leave school on Friday afternoon not knowing whether another meal will be coming until their Monday morning subsidized breakfast. In the Yonkers public school system, 77% of their students qualify for subsidized meals with the number at 42% in the Portchester schools.

A hungry child also usually means a hungry mom or dad and there is strong correlation between hunger and chronic adult diseases including high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

In fact, 48% of households that receive food from a food bank network have at least one household member with high blood pressure, 33% have a member with diabetes, and the ripple effect never seems to end even affecting mental health.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, mothers with school-age children who face food shortages are 56% more likely to have a stress disorder or depression.

After our youngest neighbors, our most senior neighbors are the most vulnerable to food insufficiency and the health problems that follow. Many of our retired seniors on a fixed income see their savings whittling away squeezed by inflation and food prices. Their resulting lack of nutrition manifests itself in higher rates of depression, asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

The Westchester trends mirror the nationwide trend as last year in America 49 million people reached out for assistance with children, seniors, people of color and households headed by a single parent the most vulnerable.

If going to the market and traveling to a donation site is a bit difficult, Feeding Westchester appreciates cash gifts as well, which can be directed to Feeding Westchester 200 Clear Brook Rd., Elmsford, NY 10523 or donated online at https://feedingwestchester.org/get-involved/donate/