Public Notice

Emergency food and shelter funds are now available for Genesee County agencies through Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program.

For information on local board and funding, please contact Lisa Wittmeyer, case manager of emergency services, Community Action of Orleans & Genesee by May 21 at (585) 343-7798, ext. 116, or email:   [email protected]

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee will host the sixth annual Community Action Angels Children's Carnival on Friday, Aug. 16, in Lambert Park in Batavia.

Time is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be games, prizes, hot dogs and beverages.

Game tickets are five for $1.

Two bicycles will be raffled off, too, courtesy of Fidelis Care. Be there to win.

No rain date.

Lambert Park is located 100 Verona Ave. in the city.

Thanks to all participating agencies and businesses for their continued help and support.

Special thanks to carnival sponsors Fidelis Care, the YMCA, and Care A Van Ministries.

For more information, call 343-7798.

Press release:

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee in Batavia is now accepting new and gently used winter coats, hats, mittens, scarves and boots in all sizes.

These will be given to adults and children in need during this cold season. Toddler and children's sizes are especially needed.

Please only items that are clean, without holes or broken zippers.

Please drop off donations Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. to Community Action of Orleans & Genesee, 5073 Clinton Street Road.

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and has served low-income and disadvantaged families for more than 50 years. Community Action programs are designed to empower as well as provide opportunity to those who are not yet self-sufficient.

Please call 585-343-7798 for more information.

Press release:

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee is accepting winter coats, hats, mittens and scarves for the upcoming winter season! Please donate only items that are clean and in good (gently used), or new condition.  

We are accepting ALL SIZES for men, women and children!

A tax deductible receipt is available upon request.

Please drop off donations at: 5073 Clinton Street Road, Batavia.

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee Inc. is a nonprofit human service agency committed to serving the needs of the financially disadvantaged. Our mission is to serve others with dignity and respect, that help people become self-sufficient. 

All donations are given away free of charge to those in need.

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee, Inc., is looking for additional vendors and crafters for its upcoming Vendor Blender to be held on Saturday, Oct. 8, in Batavia.

Please e-mail Kim for more information at [email protected]. 

Community Action Of Orleans & Genesee

5073 Clinton Street Road

Batavia, NY 14020

New and gently used winter coats, hats, mittens, gloves, scarfs and boots in all sizes are being accepted by Community Action of Orleans & Genesee in Batavia.

These will be given to adults and children in need during this cold season.

Please donate only items that are clean, without holes or broken zippers.

Drop off donations at Community Action of Orleans & Genesee, located at 5073 Clinton Street Road, Batavia, anytime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Call 343-7798 for information.

Press release:

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee will hold a free "Poverty Simulation" the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 3 at the Batavia First United Methodist Church, located at 8221 Lewiston Road (Route 63) in Batavia. It will take place from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

Space is limited. Please RSVP by Wednesday, Sept. 24, by contacting Nathan Varland, director of Housing and Support Services at 589-5605 or e-mail:   [email protected]

Citizens, decision makers and leaders are urged to attend.

(This is a separate event from the organization's Poverty Awareness Dinner at Batavia Downs, also on Oct. 3, in the evening.)

How would you face a month in poverty? Could you survive?

Well over 44 million Americans, 15 million of whom are children under the age of 18, live in poverty every day. In Genesee and Orleans counties alone, more than 12,700 people (including more than 4,000 children) live below the poverty line.

There are many more who have incomes above the poverty line, but their incomes are still low enough to qualify for programs like Food Stamps and Medicaid. Since the economic downturn, full-time employment is harder to find and the use of emergency food pantries has increased.

It is difficult for those of us who have enough to truly understand the situations that families living in poverty experience every day – the decisions they have to make, and the fears and frustrations they feel.

We are eager to enhance our community conversation about poverty as we begin our 50th year. We are inviting you to "walk a mile" in the shoes of those facing poverty by participating in a Community Action Poverty Simulation.

The Simulation provides participants with the opportunity to assume the role of a low-income family member living on a limited budget. The experience is divided into four 15-minute sessions, each representing one week in which you must provide for your family and maintain your home.

As one participant commented, "This poverty simulation dramatically demonstrates how much time and energy many families have to give just to survive from day to day. It quickly dispels the myth that people would do fine if they would only go out and get a job!"

Every month, hundreds of people in Genesee County rely on free food programs to help them meet their nutritional needs, and the number of people needing assistance has only grown, according to local food bank officials.

Even as the need goes up, said Laura Sugarwala, nutrition resource manager for Foodlink, funding is in danger of being cut.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget cuts funding for the main source of revenue for these programs by 13 percent and puts the budget allocation into the Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Grant program.

The change would essentially end the 30-year-old Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP).

Agencies such as Foodlink would compete with other programs for a single pot of money. Also, the change would delay the ability of Foodlink and the organizations they serve to budget in advance of providing services, at least to the same degree they can now.

Foodlink helps channel HPNAP funding to four local agencies that feed the hungry -- Community Action of Orleans & Genesee, the Salvation Army, Steven's Table and City Church.

"I see a lot of hungry people, a lot of children this could potentially effect," said Lisa Whittmeyer, emergency service coordinator for Community Action.

Whittmeyer and Sugarwala hope that area residents will stop by the Community Action office at 5073 Clinton St. Road, Batavia, to sign a petition, sign the online petition at FoodlinkNY.org, or write to Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer and express support for retaining funding as is for HPNAP.

The proposed cuts would mean a cut in services and the amount of food available, both Whittmeyer and Sugarwala said.

Sugarwala said it will be much harder to provide properly nutritious food to clients of the local agencies if funding is cut.

"In my role as nutrition resource manager, I would have to make decisions, without funding, about what we wouldn't be able to carry in the way of nutritious products, items like low-grain and low-sodium products -- all the things that are important for health," Sugarwala said.

The people who rely on food bank programs are not necessarily the same people who get food stamps or receive other government assistance.

Those programs are means tested and sometimes people reach circumstances in their life where they simply don't have enough money for food, even though they don't qualify for other government assistance programs.

For any of the food banks, anybody who walks through the door and says they're hungry gets a meal.

"People in our service area come from a variety of backgrounds," Sugarwala said. "We don't know everything that's going on at home."

Foodlink, which receives $2 million in annual funding from HPNAP, serves a 10-county region in WNY. Four years ago, a survey found 125,000 people in that service area that don't always get enough to eat.

Since then, food banks have seen a 30-percent increase in the number of meals served. Foodlink is preparing another survey because officials suspect the number of people facing food emergencies regularly may have as much as doubled.