To the Editor:

The Community Lunch Program For Kids (Norwood, Norfolk and Raymondville) would like to express our most sincere appreciation to the following businesses, foundations, civic groups and churches for their incredible generosity to CLPK. Because of these organizations, we have been able to do more for our local children this year, than ever before.

Adirondack Kids Foundation, Alcoa Foundation, Arconic, American Legion -Norfolk, American Legion Riders 925, Corning Inc., Donaldson Funeral Home, Elks Lodge #1702 Massena, Elks Lodge 2074 Potsdam, Feeding America, Food Bank of Central New York, Frazer Computing Inc., Golub Foundation (Price Chopper), J.C. Merrimack Inc., Knights of Columbus- Norfolk, Knowlton and Sons, Mother Cabrini LOC, Norfolk Housing, Norfolk Wesleyan Church, NNCS Angel Tree, NNCS Teachers’ Association, Northern New York Community Foundation, Northern Machining, Nourish New York, Order of the Eastern Star No. 230, Parish of the Visitation and St. Raymond’s, Renewal Housing (Baldwin Acres), Sandstone Family Dentistry, SeaComm Federal Credit Union, Smile Associates, Snider and Snider LLP, Stewart’s Shops’, United Methodist Church of Norfolk, United Methodist Church of Raymondville, United Way Worldwide, Walmart (Massena), Walmart (Potsdam), Youth Philanthropy Council of the Northern New York Community Foundation, and of course the incredibly generous individuals and families who donate to CLPK each year.

When the schools closed mid-March due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, CLPK was able to get our food distribution up and going in a matter of days. We were able to provide large boxes of nutritious food to our 80 plus families with 200 plus children every two weeks for six straight months! During that time period we distributed the equivalent of over 26,000 meals to local children facing food insecurity. We were one of the first food programs up and running and one of the last still providing food into the month of September.

In addition to this, we were able to sponsor a BACK2SCHOOL event for 76 NNCS (CLPK) families. All students were given socks, sneakers, underwear, and backpacks, as well as school supplies, hygiene items, children’s books and brand new winter coats. All leftover items were given to NNCS to pass on to other children in need. We would also like to acknowledge the following groups who assisted us at our BACK2SCHOOL event: Arconic,

Norwood Kiwanis/NNCS Key Club, Norwood Norfolk Raymondville Outreach, St. Lawrence County Traffic Safety, and Youth Philanthropy Council Of Northern New York Community Foundation.

Most recently, we provided 84 Thanksgiving Food Boxes, as well as pajamas for the children in our program. We will finish up 2020 with a distribution of food for the Christmas Break on December 23rd to our current 86 CLPK families.

Our goal of sharing this information is not to highlight what CLPK has done this year; but rather to share with you what the generosity of our sponsors has allowed us to do. None of this would have been possible without the kind and generous support of our donors!

I think we would all agree that 2020 is a year we all can’t wait to say goodbye to! However, in spite of all the bad things that have happened in 2020, we here at CLPK still can’t help but feel blessed to have such a wonderful group of people supporting our program and our families!

Wishing you the best in 2021; good health, happiness and hope! Stay safe! Stay well! Happy New Year!

Wendy Chambers

Community Lunch Program for Kids Norwood, Norfolk and Raymondville