Stephen J. Kotz on Aug 20, 2025
The volunteers who make the Sag Harbor Food Pantry run like clockwork will be honored at the 10 a.m. Sunday service at the First Presbyterian (Old Whalers’) Church on August 31.
The Reverend Nancy Remkus said the service would celebrate community with appropriate readings.
“We have a very active food pantry in Sag Harbor,” which depends on its volunteers, she said.
The service, which will be followed by a reception where cake and coffee will be served, will offer the community an opportunity “to come together to thank them all for what they do for our community — and how we can all help by donating food or funds.”
Boxes will be in the narthex, where donations of nonperishable foods such as rice, pasta, beans, tomato sauce, peanut butter and jelly, and cereal will be collected. Personal hygiene products are also welcome.
April Gornik, who is helping organize the post-service reception, said she was impressed by the large number of volunteers who help out at the food pantry each week. She said the food pantry was given the Sag Harbor Partnership’s Community Service Award in 2021, but that honor was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said their “compassion and generosity does so much good for the community.”
Volunteers will also be presented with “goodie bags,” Gornik said, that will include gifts from Bay Street Theater, The Church, the Sag Harbor Historical Museum and the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.
Evelyn Ramunno, who at 89 years old, serves as the pantry’s executive director, said at this time of year, the pantry serves approximately 80 families, or as many as 500 people, each week.
Each family receives fresh milk, eggs, butter, cheese, meat or fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, beans, breads, and other items.
“We are able to supplement their food by about $120 per family,” she said.
Ramunno said the need rises every winter when those people who work seasonal jobs are laid off, and 100 to 120 families depend on the pantry.
“It’s a wonderful thing to be honored,” she said of the upcoming service and reception, “but that’s not what we do it for. We do it to help.”