Tri-County Citizen

CAER Center expands food pantry




A volunteer for the Chesaning Area Emergency Relief Center (CAER) food pantry (right) guides a food recipient/client through the new food pantry. Clients must show a valid ID with residency in the CAER service area. They can get food up to once per month. Photos by Jeanne Marcello

A volunteer for the Chesaning Area Emergency Relief Center (CAER) food pantry (right) guides a food recipient/client through the new food pantry. Clients must show a valid ID with residency in the CAER service area. They can get food up to once per month. Photos by Jeanne Marcello

CHESANING – Discord between the senior citizens utilizing the Chesaning senior center facilities and the Chesaning Area Emergency Relief (CAER) Center seems to have widened at the building shared by the two entities, 218 Church St. in Chesaning.

In the last weeks of 2018, CAER Center volunteers successfully moved all of the food that had been stored inside the St. Peter Parish school building into a portion of the space previously occupied by the senior center.

St. Peter Parish had requested the food be removed from its school building before Jan. 1, to comply with insurance requirements.

CAER Center co-director Marcia Westrick said it took five weeks to move the food out of St. Peter’s school building. She said they even worked until 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The church asked that all the food pantry items be moved out before Jan. 1. SOUTH COLONY household items for distribution to the needy.

Westrick spearheaded the effort to change the way food distributions are handled. Rather than filling food boxes at the church and bringing them to the CAER Center for pickup, food recipients would be able to shop the food pantry. They would be able to select foods and non-food items that their families are more likely to use.

Westrick said many of the seniors were unaware that they might qualify to receive food from the food pantry.

Much of the food is currently displayed on shelves that have been placed inside what had previously served as the senior center activities coordinator’s office. Some of the coordinator’s office contents have been split between a large closet and the open room where the seniors eat and enjoy activities.

Westrick accused the seniors of bringing more items into the seniors’ area as an act of spite. She said they should get rid of stuff.

However, seniors denied bringing in additional items. Items that had previously been stored in the office and the closet, now occupied by the senior center coordinator, were moved into the main room. Senior center coordinator Amy DeGeus, who works for the county, said, “They’ve actually gotten rid of a lot of stuff.”

Former CAER Center director Kenneth Bueche said there had never been so much conflict between the seniors and the CAER volunteers over the 30 years he served as director. He indicated that the seniors are currently in the process of trying to move the senior center location. Rosemary Newcomb, who is an active member of both the CAER Center and the Chesaning senior center, confirmed that the seniors are in the process of trying to relocate the senior center elsewhere.

Newcomb said, “We are actually planning to form a nonprofit corporation with the goal of establishing a new site and seeking grant funds to support ourselves.”

She explained that parking has always been a major problem at the Church Street building. Newcomb said, “There’s so much more we can offer seniors. We are becoming a senior community.”

As far as a new location, Newcomb was reluctant to share any details about the potential new site, since it’s not set in stone yet.