Community Coalition Celebrates 10 Years

In their February 2020 edition, The Hudson Independent ran an article marking the 10th anniversary of C2 and reporting on its origins, purpose and some of its achievements, including the creation of The Community Food Pantry of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. The article, written by Charlene Weigel, is printed in its entirety below:

Fif­teen peo­ple gath­ered on a cold Jan­u­ary morn­ing for an un­usual 10th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion. It was 8:30 a.m. on the first Mon­day of the new year. Con­grat­u­la­tions were toasted with cof­fee rather than cham­pagne. The group spent a mo­ment ac­knowl­edg­ing their hard work and the im­por­tance of this mile­stone. Then the Com­mu­nity Coali­tion got down to busi­ness: shar­ing in­for­ma­tion and co­or­di­nat­ing re­sources for un­der­served chil­dren and fam­i­lies in Sleepy Hol­low and Tar­ry­town.

Kids’ Club of Tar­ry­town and Sleepy Hol­low founded the Com­mu­nity Coali­tion (C2) in De­cem­ber of 2009 as an open fo­rum for lo­cal non-prof­its. Theresa Kil­man, Erin Gath­rid and other C2 founders re­al­ized that a num­ber of or­ga­ni­za­tions were about to run com­pet­ing hol­i­day food and cloth­ing dri­ves. “A group of Kids’ Club lead­ers made phone calls and asked to co­or­di­nate the ef­fort,” said Kil­man. “An ini­tial one time meet­ing led to monthly gath­er­ings. Ten years later, those phone calls have turned into a col­lab­o­ra­tive coali­tion that ad­dresses and co­or­di­nates needs in the com­mu­nity.”

Sis­ter Su­san Gardella of the RSHM LIFE Cen­ter was at the table for that De­cem­ber 2009 meet­ing. “The LIFE Cen­ter had a small food pantry as did lo­cal churches,” said Sis­ter Gardella. “None of us had the space or were meet­ing the need. The LIFE Cen­ter was able to share its ex­pe­ri­ence to get a real so­lu­tion in place.”

The Com­mu­nity Food Pantry of Sleepy Hol­low and Tar­ry­town was cre­ated at that first C2 meet­ing, and now re­duces hunger by feed­ing about 250 lo­cal fam­i­lies each month. The LIFE Cen­ter, in turn, was able to free up lim­ited staff and vol­un­teers to fo­cus on its unique Learn­ing Is For Every­one (LIFE) mis­sion.

When non-prof­its co­or­di­nate, they lever­age scarce re­sources, re­duce re­dun­dan­cies and cre­ate a stronger voice for pub­lic pol­icy ad­vo­cacy. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it is un­com­mon to see such co­or­di­na­tion in prac­tice. Com­mu­nity plan­ners cite turf is­sues, com­pe­ti­tion for grant fund­ing, and lack of ex­pe­ri­ence with col­lab­o­ra­tive lead­er­ship as bar­ri­ers.

The or­ga­ni­za­tions of the Com­mu­nity Coali­tion defy those odds. The fact that this col­lab­o­ra­tion spans two dis­tinct vil­lages is even more im­pres­sive. “I think, in part, this is be­cause we share a school dis­trict and our chil­dren don’t see a bor­der be­tween the two vil­lages,” said Rachelle Gebler, who headed C2 from 2015 to 2018 and is pres­i­dent of the Com­mu­nity Food Pantry. “They have the per­spec­tive that we are one vil­lage, and the con­nec­tion of the younger gen­er­a­tion is passed on to the older gen­er­a­tion.”

That con­nec­tion also strength­ens the in­di­vid­ual im­pact of C2 par­tic­i­pants. Joan Levy is on the board of Kids’ Club and chairs C2 with Jen­nifer Liddy Green, Pres­i­dent of Kids’ Club. Levy de­scribed a tra­di­tion among well-in­ten­tioned non-prof­its to dis­trib­ute a frozen turkey dur­ing the hol­i­days. A dis­cus­sion at a Com­mu­nity Coali­tion meet­ing re­vealed that many fam­i­lies did not have the cook­ing equip­ment to deal with a frozen turkey. “Chicken is now the gift of choice,” said Levy.

When or­ga­ni­za­tions share that type of deep com­mu­nity knowl­edge, every­one ben­e­fits. A typ­i­cal C2 meet­ing is chaired by Green and Levy and in­cludes rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Ro­tary, Warner Li­brary, the school dis­trict, Open Door, the Life Cen­ter, Sleepy Hol­low and Tar­ry­town gov­ern­ment, and other health, re­li­gious, and civic non-prof­its. “Frankly, I think the talk­ing that takes place at the end of the for­mal meet­ing is as im­por­tant as what is on the agenda,” ob­served Green.

C2 cir­cu­lates min­utes, an­nounce­ments and a com­mu­nity cal­en­dar to a group of about 180 mem­bers and or­ga­ni­za­tions. Gebler sum­ma­rized, “When any group can share a com­mon goal, that ef­fort pays out even greater re­wards. C2 pro­vides the space for us to work to­gether for our com­mu­nity.”

The Com­mu­nity Coali­tion meets at 8:30 a.m. on the first Mon­day of every month dur­ing the school year at the James Gal­gano Se­nior Cen­ter, 55 Elm Street, Sleepy Hol­low. If you would like to be added to the Com­mu­nity Coali­tion’s email list, please con­tact Jen­nifer Green at pres­i­dent@kid­sclub­tar­ry­town.org.