Our Missions

Area Food Shelves

Financial support for these 3 programs is distributed quarterly throughout the year and is generated through a designated monthly collection and special fundraising events.

Elizabethtown Community Food Shelf

St John’s Church is a key supporter of the Elizabethtown Community Food Shelf which is located in the parish hall of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Elizabethtown. The church is also represented on the Food Shelf Board.

This food shelf primarily serves families in Elizabethtown, Lewis, New Russia, Wadhams, Westport, Willsboro and Essex and it provides emergency or supplemental food assistance to them.  It also takes takes food requests from Essex County Social Services, Families First and ACAP (Adirondack Community Action Programs).

About 12 years ago, the Food Shelf decided to purchase a vegetable share in the “CSA” (Community Supported Agriculture) at Full and By Farm in Essex. Every Thursday between June 1 and December 31, volunteers from St. John’s pick up the share from the farm and deliver the produce to the Food Shelf to be distributed to the clientele. This supplement of fresh local food has been of vital importance to a needy population.

Willsboro Food Shelf

St. Johns provides food donations, staffing and financial support to the Willsboro Food Shelf which services both Willsboro and Essex. It is located in the Town of Willsboro Welcome Center and is open on Mondays from 3 to 6. In addition to canned foods and dry goods it stocks toiletries, hygiene products, cleaning and paper products which are not eligible through then government food supplement program (SNAP).

It also makes annual contributions to the Willsboro Central School Backpack Program. A school counselor determines which students qualify for the program based upon their family size, income and other circumstances.  In order to make certain that a student and his/her family have sufficient food for the weekend the backpacks of food go home with the students on Fridays during the school year. The school is hoping to expand this to a year-around program next year.  The school district has a goal of providing 25 backpacks during this school year at a cost of $273 for the current year. The Food Shelf also supplements food for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas baskets.

ADK Action

Incorporating local farms into our food security work is important to us as we strove to build long-term sustainability and resilience into our food system, and we are committed to keeping our Adirondack neighbors fed with not just any calories, but fresh and nutritious food that nourishes the whole person and the whole community. This is done through the Fair Food Program and the Fair Share Program.

The Fair Food Program provides funding for qualified households in Essex and surrounding counties to purchase locally sourced, farm fresh foods. Participants receive a Fair Food Card, which is a credit card that has been pre-loaded with funds based on the family household size. Fair Food Cards can only be used to purchase locally sourced foods from approved farm vendors and their cards are topped up monthly.

The Fair Share Program is a season-long CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription to receive produce from a local farm, at no cost to participants. From June-October, households are delivered a box each week that contains a mix of five to seven different seasonally available vegetables. Delivered This program helps low and middle-income community members take advantage of the health, environmental, and social benefits of participating in a CSA, while helping small farmers through upfront investment ahead of the growing season, when it is needed most.