Today, Assemblymember Phil Steck presented ceremonial checks representing the $150,000 in funding from capital and priority grants that he secured for the Sycamore Collaborative.

“For over 50 years, the Sycamore Collaborative has partnered with various faith communities, volunteers, and donors to address food insecurity in Schenectady County,” said Assemblymember Steck. “I am proud to have secured $125,000 to renovate the Sycamore Collaborative’s warehouse and $25,000 for operational expenses and community services. In the Assembly, I will always ensure that those most in need have their fundamental right to a meal met."

The Sycamore Collaborative operates the largest food pantry in Schenectady County. Last year, it served over 750,000 meals to individuals in need. The Sycamore Collaborative is also home to Schenectady Urban Farms, which totals over two acres of farmland. Other services they offer include a mobile pantry and a summer meals program.

"Since the pandemic, many food relief organizations have found sustainability in partnerships," said the Rev. Amaury Tañón-Santos, Executive Director/CEO of the Sycamore Collaborative. "The $125,000 project from the CREST/DASNY grant will allow the Sycamore Collaborative the ability to invite partners to opportunities to procure together, to be responsive to challenges together, and better to serve Schenectady's cultural and religious diversity together."

"The CREST/DASNY grant will allow us to begin to expand and sustain our warehousing and procurement capacity," Aldo Juárez, the Deputy Director and COO of the Sycamore Collaborative, shared. "We are dreaming about spaces that will more than triple our current warehousing capacity and technology to be used collaboratively to provide the community with more reliable food access food relief organizations in Schenectady with data about the food needs and wants of the community."

Rev. Tañón-Santos goes on to say that "having served over 40,000 visits in 2023-24, an 18% increase over the previous year, the $25,000 grant to the pantry will be an important injection of funds to distribute more food through our food pantry initiatives. The $25,000 grant for the Community Hub will allow us to sustain a space where people from Hamilton Hill and beyond can come and be safe, organize, learn, encourage each other, and share ideas to make the communities we serve throughout Schenectady resilient."

“In addition to providing this critical funding to the Sycamore Collaborative, I am a proud cosponsor of legislation that would establish a state SNAP minimum benefit program (A6214A). This would provide households receiving SNAP with an additional monthly benefit equivalent to the difference between the federal SNAP monthly benefit and one hundred dollars,” explained Steck. “This legislation and the $150,000 secured for the Sycamore Collaborative will ensure our most vulnerable residents will not go hungry.”