Letter: Hempstead pantry is a blight
Jean Kelly, Executive Director of The INN in the new Guestchoice Pantry prior to today's ribbon cutting. (March 4, 2012) Credit: Newsday/Audrey C. Tiernan
Regarding "Souping up the pantry" [News, March 5], take a look at this matter from the perspective of a Hempstead taxpayer.
First, I pay a few more cents in taxes to cover the cost to the village of servicing the extraordinary needs of this program, and of making up the taxes that the Mary Brennan Interfaith Nutrition Network soup kitchen does not pay.
Second, the program is located in a large commercial building in the industrial section of the village, which is struggling to bring business back.
Third, the service is provided not only to the citizens of Hempstead, but also to people who live somewhere on the street in other areas.
Fourth, Shelter Rock, the community that is the location of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation that supports the program financially, is safely located 10 miles from the INN. The volunteers do a few hours of work in Hempstead once a week and then run home to the safety of their nicer communities, which will never see a program like the INN, sending their needy residents to Hempstead instead.
Leone Baum, Hempstead
Editor's note: The writer is the president of the Hempstead Chamber of Commerce and a former aide to Nassau County's anti-poverty agency, the Economic Opportunity Commission.
