Regional Food Bank provides Thanksgiving meals, ingredients to neighbors
On November 5 the Regional Food Bank distributed thousands of Thanksgiving meal ingredient bags and delivered prepared meals to senior sites across Orange County and the Hudson Valley. The effort aimed to ease growing food insecurity caused in part by federal spending cuts, and it involved hundreds of volunteers and local partners who helped feed tens of thousands of residents.
The Regional Food Bank held a large Thanksgiving distribution on November 5 that provided both meal ingredient bags for families and delivered prepared meals to senior citizen sites across the Hudson Valley. The event, announced at an October 21 press conference, was part of a wider campaign to hand out 115,000 Thanksgiving meals meant to reach 25,000 people in Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Rockland, and Sullivan counties.
In Orange County, pickup locations included the Regional Food Bank at 580 State Rt. 416 in Montgomery and Mount Saint Mary College at 330 Powell Ave. in Newburgh. Prepared meals were available for walk up service at The Salvation Army at 234 Van Ness St. in Newburgh. Organizers said about 800 community volunteers joined staff, sponsors, and partners to distribute bags designed to allow families to prepare holiday meals at home.
Regional Food Bank CEO Tom Nardacci framed the operation as a response to increasing need and reduced federal assistance. "With the support of our sponsors, food industry partners, and volunteers we are taking the monumental step of feeding all of our neighbors in need throughout our 23 county service area this Thanksgiving," Nardacci said during the press conference. "We know the need is greater than ever, especially with the federal spending cuts this year which eliminated more than seven million pounds of food to our region, or more than 5.8 million meals. This is the largest Thanksgiving distribution in the state and we could not do it without the tremendous support from the lower Hudson Valley to the Capital Region to the North Country."
Each family bag weighed more than 30 pounds and contained a turkey and shelf stable items sourced from local partners, including cranberry sauce, stuffing mix, gravy, vegetables, fruit, potatoes, and dessert. In addition to pick up distributions, Thanksgiving meals were delivered to about a dozen senior citizen sites throughout the region to address the nutritional needs of older adults with limited mobility or transportation.
The scale of the drive underscored broader public health and equity challenges in the county. Food insecurity worsens chronic disease risk and strains household budgets, and reductions in federal food assistance have increased reliance on food banks and volunteer labor. The Regional Food Bank operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that collects donated food from the food industry and distributes it to over 1,000 partner agencies across a 23 county service area. The organization reported feeding more than 350,000 people each month and distributing over 54 million pounds of food in 2024, an amount the Food Bank estimated equated to 45 million meals.
For Orange County residents seeking information about programs and future distributions, the Regional Food Bank posted details at regionalfoodbank.net. The event highlighted the ongoing role of community partnerships in filling gaps left by policy changes, and it drew attention to the continuing need for coordinated solutions to food insecurity in the region.
