Second Chance Foods
Second Chance Foods
Meal Preparation Food Rescue Program Unique to Putnam County
Second Chance Foods Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Healthy Asian vegetable stir fry, hearty bean soup, and mac-and-cheese were just three of the entrees on the menu recently when PCEDC stopped by Second Chance Foods in Brewster. The day before, tuna cakes, vegetable beef soup and salads were prepared.
The food rescue program is one of a kind in Putnam County because of its unique hot meal preparation. This year, it celebrates its 10th anniversary. From humble beginnings in 2016 and its first pot of ginger carrot soup, today the nonprofit prepares more than 3,700 meals a week in its Marvin Avenue kitchen facility. From planning daily menus, to chopping ingredients, to cooking the meals and packaging them, a lot of moving parts turn 365 days a year.
“It’s always a puzzle,” says food rescue coordinator Alicia Menduni, as she unloaded mystery boxes of produce and groceries from nearby Ace Endico. The fresh lettuce and peppers will likely make a lot of salads.
“I’m proud of the work we do, and especially in making people aware that hunger exists here in Putnam County,” says Martha Elder, executive director. “It’s not only the Guatemalan migrants in downtown Brewster; food insecurity exists all over the county, with the young and the old alike.”
Elder, a founding member of the organization, says that data shows Google searches for terms like “Food Pantry Open Today,” have increased 30 percent in the first quarter of 2026. “Everyone is only one step away from food insecurity,” adds Melissa Paladino, community outreach manager.
Powerful Partnerships
Second Chance Foods partners with more than a dozen food programs and organizations in Putnam County, including Brewster Cares, Adult Protective Services, senior centers, and approximately 16 others throughout Westchester, Dutchess, and Orange, counties, and Connecticut.
Each day, the organization’s 10 employees and volunteers pick up and accept delivery of fresh meat, produce and grocery items donated by Trader Joe’s in Danbury, Ace Endico and DeCicco & Sons in Brewster, local farms, and other donors. “A local resident showed up at our door with a bag of cucumbers from his garden one day” recalls Elder. No donation is too small.
The three culinary managers, with backgrounds in nutrition, evaluate what’s available in the kitchen’s commercial freezers and pantry to set the day’s menu. “We see what’s on hand and who we’re cooking for that day, and decide what to make,” says Kathryn LaCombe, culinary director.
“We’re very flexible here,” says Elder. “It’s pivot, pivot, pivot,” adds Paladino, since the team never knows what may be donated on any given day, and what they will make into 500 meals.
Since January, the organization has made more than 88,000 individual meal portions – soups, stews, chili, pulled pork, fajitas – that are frozen and delivered to local partners. Two of its most loved programs are Bountiful Meals and Nourishing Meals, partnerships it launched with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Program of Putnam.
Bountiful Meals stocks frozen entrees into 9 freezers that the organization delivers to senior centers, local libraries and other locations. More freezer access locations are planned for this year.
Food Available to Everyone
Elder says that the food is readily accessible – no forms, no fuss, just food — unlike programs that have income requirements for families.
Second Chance Foods is grateful for its many donors, volunteers and partners, and has a wish list. It continually works to locate more resources as food insecurity grows, according to Paladino. Its goal is to avoid rent and purchase a facility of its own. Financial gifts are always welcome.
The organization will celebrate its 10th anniversary at a fall fundraising gala at Mount Kisco Country Club on Oct. 15th. Details and tickets will be available soon on the website.
Check out Second Chance Foods’ website. To volunteer or to donate, call 845-734-3002, or email [email protected].
