MALONE — The ComLinks Gleaning Program has lost 60 percent of its state funding and may not be able to serve the 24 North Country food pantries that depend on its deliveries.
The Board of Directors at the community-action agency says it will do all it can to continue serving as many sites as possible by arranging for food-pantry representatives to come to Malone to pick up supplies.
But pantries and sites farthest away from the gleaning warehouse will likely not be served, said ComLinks Board Chairman Marc "Tim" Lashomb.
JOB CUTS
He said the board does not know which sites will get priority for the available food, and it is too soon to know how many of the six full-time and two part-time seasonal workers will lose their jobs.
"There will be staff loss, but we'll know more in a couple of weeks," Lashomb said. "We're still in negotiations with (the state) over our budget, but we are not going to be able to provide for all of the pantries we reach. If we had $100,000, we could make it."
SOME HOPE
The agency was notified by the State Health Department's Bureau of Nutritional Risk Reduction, Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program that its 2011-12 budget would be $150,000, which is $193,000 less than this year's.
"The 60-percent cut in our funding means that we will only be able to offer service to food pantries and soup kitchens that are not affiliated with the regional food bank within a three-county area of Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence," said ComLinks executive Director Brian Cassini in a letter released by the County Legislature on Thursday.
Following the meeting, Cassini said he was recently told there is hope that extra money available from the state will go to select agencies and that ComLinks could be one.
DELIVERY HUBS
At the same time, the board is looking at options such as creating centralized hubs for food distribution to the outlying areas.
Existing food pantries and service users that are clustered in neighboring communities could have a one-stop location where their ComLinks delivery would be made. It would be up to them to go there to pick up their share.
"The highest cost for us, like many places, is the transportation," Cassini said, so any way the agency can trim that expense helps.
He said "innovative ideas" are under study that could increase revenue that pertains to children and families, but that it was too soon to elaborate on those plans.
SUMMER FOOD
Cassini stressed that the summer food programs under way in local communities will not be impacted by the budget changes nor will the agency's highly successful backpack program, which restarts this fall.
Lashomb said the timing of the ComLinks budget reduction couldn't be worse.
"This is a huge disappointment after we were just getting back on track," he said, referring to the rough two years ComLinks has endured following the 2009 firing of former Executive Director Nancy Reich.
She was indicted by a grand jury for alleged grand larceny and falsifying business records following a State Comptroller's Office audit that accused her of using $100,000 in programs-grant funds on herself. The case is being handled by a special prosecutor but could eventually go to trial.
'HUGE BURDEN'
ComLinks recently ended its domestic-violence services and eliminated two housing-program staff members to reduce costs and begin a return to its core mission of helping the underprivileged.
Lashomb said that once the 2011-12 budget is more clearly defined, more answers will come. But that doesn't make the news any easier.
"This is a huge burden to people who depend on that food. This will be a challenge to see how far we can go."
Email Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com
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