GLENS FALLS — Glens Falls Farmers’ Market announced they have been awarded $20,000 in Double Up Food Bucks from Field & Fork Network’s Double Up NY for the 2021 Market Season from July 1 to Oct. 31. This program doubles the value of federal nutrition assistance dollars spent at the market, helping people bring home more locally grown fruits and vegetables. 

The wins are three-fold: low-income consumers eat more healthy foods, local farmers gain new customers and make more money, and more food dollars stay in the local economy.

Steps for using Double Up Food Bucks: Go to the Market before or after you shop to sign up for the program. Staff is trained to help; Swipe your EBT/SNAP benefits card to pay for your purchases; Match your EBT dollars $1 for $1 with your Double Up Food Bucks Loyalty Card. (Qualifying items may vary); Shop for fresh produce with your Double Up Food Bucks. 

To learn more visit: www.glensfallsfarmersmarket.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Over 100 volunteers teamed up for Sustainable Saratoga’s first ever Team Up to Clean Up community litter pick-up event on April 24-25. An estimated 200 bags filled with trash were removed from neighborhoods, roadsides, parks, ravines and commercial areas.  Several large teams participated in the event, including the Saratoga Lions Club, Ballston Spa Mentoring and the Saratoga Interlaken Garden Club. There was even an international team that joined the effort from Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

“The enthusiasm for this first clean up event has been overwhelming,” explained Sustainable Saratoga’s Executive Director, Wendy Mahaney. “Our local communities, including teams from Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, Wilton and Greenfield, have a strong sense of stewardship and pride towards the environment. This event gave people an opportunity to take meaningful action to help keep litter, specifically microplastics, out of our waterways, soil, air and wildlife.” 

Among the items collected during the event were tires, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, plastic utensils and cigarette butts. 

Stewart’s Shops donated ice cream coupons, which were distributed to the first 100 participants. Municipalities including Saratoga Springs and Greenfield provided supplies and helped pick up filled trash bags. Sustainable Saratoga hopes to hold additional litter clean-up events throughout the year.

To learn more about Sustainable Saratoga, visit: www.sustainablesaratoga.org

SCHUYLERVILLE — Saratoga Apple Orchard hosts a Cherry Blossom Festival, from Noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 8. 

The event will feature a farmers’ market and craft fair and live music all day long. There will be Mother’s Day flowers, gift baskets, 20-plus craft and art vendors, food trucks, artisan Tuscan pizza, barbecue, maple spun sugar, apple cider doughnuts and fresh apple and fruit pies, farm painted furniture, antiques, candles and more.

Vendors for the event include Specialties for Mom, Fancy Nails, Mulit Jewelry, Gift Baskets, Fresh Flowers and Plants, Muddy Trail Spices and Jerky.

Saratoga Apple Orchard is located at 1174 State Route 29 in Schuylerville. Phone: 518-695-3131. 

WILTON — Youth2 – Youth Helping Youth is teaming up with Toilet Paper Trio (toiletpapertrio.com), to jointly host their 3rd Community Care Pop-UP Event-“Toilet Paper Towers.”

Toilet paper is being collected to be donated to Franklin Community Center, Wellspring, Lifeworks/Soup Kitchen and Saratoga Senior Center. 

The drop-off will take place 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, May 22 at the outdoors Farmer’s Market at the Wilton Mall. The drop-off will be completely COVID-safe; you don’t even have to leave your car.

Youth2 is an organization based in Saratoga made up of both youth and adults working together to improve the lives of people around the world. For more information visit www.youthsquared.org

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Franklin Community Center, a Saratoga Springs-based organization that provides basic necessities and services to individuals and families, received a charitable contribution of $10,000 from the Jennifer Crimi Sunshine Donor Advised Fund of The Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region. This grant will support Project Lift, an after-school prevention program for youth that operates within the Saratoga Springs City School District elementary and middle schools. 

“Support from partners like Dennis and Lynne Crimi and the Jennifer Crimi Sunshine Donor Advised Fund is critical to the continued success of our program. We are grateful for their generosity,” said Colleen O’Connor Potter, Project Lift Program Director. “Thanks to their support, we will be able to send approximately 60 children to over 250 weeks of summer camp. These kids will get to experience much-needed fun and exciting programs in safe and healthy environments.”

Dennis and Lynne Crimi established the Jennifer Crimi Sunshine Fund as a way to honor the memory of their daughter. Since 2005, the fund has given hundreds of children in need the opportunity to spend summer at various camps and other outdoor adventures. 

Franklin Community Center operates Project Lift in all Saratoga Springs Central School District elementary schools and middle school. The unique and comprehensive program has been in operation for over 30 years and places strong emphasis on positive youth development. The after-school program is free to the enrolled students and provides access to Franklin Community Center’s ancillary services, such as holiday assistance, school supplies, food, clothing, summer camp and other services as needed.

For more information regarding the program and services of Franklin Community Center, visit franklincommunitycenter.org. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Hannaford Supermarkets announced that each of its 183 stores donates or diverts all food at risk of going to waste, sending no food at all to landfills. 

The accomplishment, which is the culmination of a decade-long effort, makes Hannaford the first large-scale grocery retailer across its New England and New York market to meet this goal.  The accomplishment also highlights that Hannaford is an industry leader in managing food waste and in working to address climate change. 

Hannaford achieved the milestone with a multi-pronged approach focused on first preventing food waste through strategic product ordering and management at the store level. Hannaford associates are trained on how to responsibility handle food to avoid damage and exposure to temperature variation. 

Each Hannaford store also strictly follows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Food Recovery Hierarchy, which prioritizes the rescue of surplus product for donation to food insecure individuals – generating millions of meals donated annually. Other key elements of Hannaford’s food waste diversion program include donations to local farmers for animal feed and food-to-energy conversion efforts.

Hannaford’s adherence to this process kept 65 million pounds of food waste from reaching landfills in 2020.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as much as 40 percent of all food in the U.S. is wasted along its journey from farm to table, eventually ending up in landfills and generating harmful greenhouse gases. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. per capita waste has increased by 50 percent since 1974 and the average person throws away 250 pounds of food per year. 

For more information about Hannaford’s sustainability efforts, visit the website hannaford.com/about-us/sustainability 

Week One April 23-29:
Photo by Sue Clark

Week Two April 30-May 6:
Photo by Claire Marcino

Week Three May 7-13:
Photo by Sue Clark
Honorable Mention: Al Marlin

Week Four May 14-20:
Photo by Lori Barker

Week Four May 21-27:
Photo by Rich Indyk

Contest runs for 5 weeks.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The Sisterhood of Congregation Shaara Tfille recently made a contribution of $500 to the Saratoga Nutrition Assistance for Children (SNACpack) Program. Based at St. Clement’s Church, SNACpack volunteers pack over 140 weekend backpacks full of child-friendly, nonperishable foods. Since 2015, these backpacks are given to children who do not have enough food to sustain them over the weekend. Sisterhood President Judith Ehrenshaft and Treasurer Carole Polacsek delivered the donation to SNACpack Co-founder and Coordinator Kerry Hall Trimmings.

For more information on The Sisterhood, please call 518-584-2370 or saratogajcc@verizon.net. For more information on the SNACpack program, please visit snacpackprogram.org.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Automobile Museum presents the annual Spring Auto Show on from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 15 in the Saratoga Spa State Park. 

All cars, trucks and motorcycles are welcome. Vehicle pre-registration is $15 and day of registration is $20.  Pre-register with your car club and receive VIP parking. 

Show field admission is free for spectators, a $10 parking fee will apply, per spectator car.

Per NYS regulations, face masks and social distancing MUST be used and followed while attending. For more information, go to: saratogaautomuseum.org. 

Local, family owned and operated Thomas Pest Services owners Bill Clark and Sarah Thomas-Clark last month hosted an inaugural virtual walking event in support of Cerebral Palsy, with a month-long campaign to raise funds and awareness of the cause, in honor of their daughter.

“We couldn’t be more thankful to everyone who walked, participated, and donated to our event,” said Sarah Thomas-Clark, Vice President, Thomas Pest Services. “This cause always means so much to us because of our daughter, Riley, and wish to spread awareness for others who live and strive with CP.”

As part of the fundraiser, Thomas donated 10% of all sales for the month of March.

This, combined with their facebook fundraiser, totals nearly $7,000 to be donated to the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

The Clarks’ daughter Riley was diagnosed with right side spastic hemiplegia when she was one and a half years old. While Riley has suffered impairment to her coordination and fine motor skills, Riley is a fighter, and has been attending weekly occupational and physical therapy to help with her condition.

The Clarks and Thomas Pest Services honor the CP cause not just for Riley, but for the whole Thomas team; a number of other employees at the company are also affected by cerebral palsy. 

To learn more about Riley’s story and how she has inspired Thomas Pest Services, check out www.thomaspestservices.com/cerebral-palsy-awareness.