Low-cost foods available through Orange County Health Department

GOSHEN — Orange County Department of Health’s Healthy Orange and Strategic Alliance for Health program has partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension, HONOR Emergency Housing Group, Inc. and Together Our Unity Can Heal, Inc. (T.O.U.C.H.) to form the Get Fresh Orange Consortium to work on getting healthy, low-cost or free foods to targeted populations through food pantries and feeding programs in Orange County.
Get Fresh Orange has coordinated with the Cornwall Food Pantry’s surplus food distributions from the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Once every two or three months, the Food Bank delivers 10 to 15 pallets of food to a designated spot in Middletown for food pantries, soup kitchens and other feeding programs to pick up.
Senior programs and other community programs have also been included.
The food consists of mostly produce, some dairy, packaged foods and is all free.
The Food Bank will be making about eight large deliveries of this kind to Orange County throughout the year. Four deliveries were already made this year, including one this week at the T.O.U.C.H. office at 790 Route 211 East, Middletown.
The Cornell Cooperative’s gleaning coordinator, Stiles Najac, has made arrangements so that any interested food pantry or similar service agency may pick up the free food. T.O.U.C.H will sponsor this initiative as they have already coordinated a similar and very successful program in Rockland County.
To inquire about food pick up, to volunteer or for any questions, please call Najac at 845-344-1234.