Category Archives: Housing

Provisions 139 – Food Pantry

The recent cutoff of SNAP was a big blow to our friends and neighbors. West Side Community Services maintains a food pantry in our neighborhood. During the shutdown, the number of people using the pantry doubled. Although SNAP is coming back on-line, support for the pantry is critically needed and appreciated.

From the director, Crystal Selk:

If you have resources and want to help:

Donate money

Make a one-time monetary donation or sign up as a monthly donor.

Recurring donations help us plan ahead but every donation helps! Keep in mind that we buy in bulk, so we may be able to get better prices than individual customers can.

Donate food or host a food drive

Our current food needs are:

  • Grains (pasta/spaghetti, rice, cereal, oats)
  • Canned veggies (tomatoes, corn, peas, green beans, carrots)
  • Canned fruits (apples/applesauce, peaches, pears, pineapple)
  • Canned beans (any)
  • Canned tuna/chicken

Drop off food donations at the pantry:

  • Tuesdays – 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
  • Wednesdays – 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  • Thursdays – 2-5 p.m.

Volunteer

We especially need volunteers during our open hours on Wednesday afternoons and Thursday evenings. Volunteers assist customers as they shop using our points system. Complete our volunteer application to get started.

Other ideas

Got another idea to alleviate food insecurity in our community? Want to put on a dance party and collect monetary donations at the door for Provisions 139? Or host a chili cookoff where all the entry fees go to the pantry? Want your book club to make weekend snack packs for kids (who don’t have access to free school breakfast/lunch on Saturdays and Sundays)?

Contact our director of operations, Mary, to start a conversation.

EV Chargers

We recently learned about the firm itselectric from Brooklyn NY (itselectric – Curbside EV Charging Built for Cities).

  • itselectric installs a Level-2 EV charger at no cost to the property owner
  • Once the charger is live, itselectric shares a portion of the revenue with the property owner
  • itselectric pays for any power used by the charger
  • itselectric offers turnkey design, permitting and installation, and manages and maintains the charger and handles driver accounts

Right now, itselectric is hoping to launch a small pilot in Buffalo, and they’d love the opportunity to share more with any interested property owners in the Vision Niagara network.

Here’s some recent press around the pilot they launched a few months ago in Fast Company, US News and World Report, and Car & Driver:

These sleek electric chargers could soon be all over New York streets (fastcompany.com)

New York to Pilot Revenue-Sharing EV Charging | U.S. News (usnews.com)

This EV Charger Can Make Money for Property Owners (caranddriver.com)

If you are interested, contact Nathan King at nathan@itselectric.us