Carole called the meeting to order at 7:05pm. The prayer was a reading from Matthew chapter 9 verses 1-8. The minutes were read by Barbara Yannaco; accepted by Jack Kiely; and seconded by Anne Nardelli. In attendance were: Anne Nardelli, Linda Layton, Carole Grafer, Linda Considine, Jack Kiely, Bucky Ryan, Nick Dono, Barbara Yannaco, Thèrèse Reynolds, and Kay Coyle. Our HPNAP report for January 2006: we served 55 households which included 76 children, 99 adults, and 14 elderly. Since Bill is quite ill and he and Carole will not be able to do all that they have been doing we are all going to try to pitch in and keep this closet running as well as it has been. Nick has  volunteered to take care of the pantry while Bill is ill. Nick and Bucky went to the food bank on January 25th.They purchased 1632 pounds of food [mostly meat] for $1624.87. Jack, Betty, Kay,  and Linda met them at the closet and helped to unload everything and get it put away. Thèrèse Reynolds reported that the Knights of Columbus from Blessed Kateri will be delivering items to the food closet. St. Denis did hold their “Souper Bowl”. We have received from HPNAP 1% milk certificates which are good at Stewarts.  We will use these to purchase milk to have available in the food closet.

There will be a special produce day on March 1st. Nick is looking into this. Kay will get the money for the eggs from Donna and give her the receipts. Linda Layton has volunteered to make copies of the log sheets for the pantry. Shop and Stop in Beekman has donated $1,266.80. Marge Schifini will do all the thank you notes. Blessed Kateri will once again have a second collection for us. The weekend will be March 18 and 19. The Christmas basket discussion has been tabled until a future meeting. Nick spoke to Father Mike about getting on the Saint Columba web site. The site is set up for only one page, and since we have many, we will stay on the Angelfire site. Linda Considine will pick up storage bags for the fresh fruits and vegetables. We will be able to store the fresh fruits and vegetables in sizes that are more convenient for our clients. Gwen Davis at the Community Action Center of Beacon provides a resource for clients looking to get in touch with the appropriate state and local agencies. The meeting ended with a prayer at 8 p.m.   Submitted by Barbara Yannaco