With families struggling to put food on the table during the pandemic, the Tompkins County COVID-19 Food Task Force hosted a free food pickup and delivery for more than 800 individuals, in 216 households, July 7 and 8.

The service aided families caught in a one-week gap between the end of a reduced and free school lunch distribution programs and the start of summer school food programs for the Ithaca City and Trumansburg school districts. Food donations also assisted the Newfield, Lansing, West Village and Northside communities, and farmworkers through the Cornell Farmworker Program.

Task force workers distributed boxes of fresh produce that included cherries, carrots, cucumbers, garlic scapes, salad greens, lettuce and zucchini donated by local farms, Headwater Food Hub and Healthy Food for All, and boxes of shelf-stable food from the Food Bank of the Southern Tier and Friendship Donations Network.