Corned Beef with a Cause: Pine Plains Church Addresses Food Insecurity

Two weeks ago the first email reminder went out. Then came the phone calls. Their message? It is once again time for the annual corned beef dinner. 

At First United Presbyterian Church in Pine Plains, longtime members Jeanne Valentine-Chase and Dyan Wapnick are keeping a 20-year-old tradition alive. The duo is busy preparing for the church fundraiser on March 16, which this year will also benefit two local food pantries. “We decided that we should think more about food insecurity in town,” said Valentine-Chase.

The church is preparing 120 takeout dinners and has already sold 80. Of the proceeds, which they estimate will be around $1,000, 75% will go to the church, with the remainder divided between the food pantries at Willow Roots and the Pine Plains Food Locker.

“It’s great to see the community working together to keep things local and help each other out,” said Nelson Zayas, co-founder and treasurer of Willow Roots. “It’s awesome to have an entity like the church in town helping out. We want to fight food insecurity in our community and this is a great way to give back.”

Pat Nannetti, the director of the Pine Plains Food Pantry, also expressed gratitude for the church’s support. “If we didn’t have the community that we have, that is always willing to help, we wouldn’t be able to survive,” she said. “On a monthly basis we can spend anywhere from $1,200 to $1,800 on food that we distribute, so any donation is greatly appreciated.”

Pine Plains resident Valentine-Chase cooks the corn beef, red potatoes, cabbage and glazed baby carrots in the church kitchen. Everything is sourced locally. “We buy our meat and carrots from Peck’s,” she said. The other ingredients are donated.

Community members like Wesley Chase also lend a hand. Chase volunteers his time and his meat-slicer to slice the corned beef. This year the church’s organist, Ryan Orton will bake 14 loaves of Irish soda bread. For dessert? Brownies made by local volunteers, sources close to the kitchen told the Herald.

The church, whose other annual fundraisers include a popular chicken barbecue and a turkey dinner, only offers meals to go. But it wasn’t always that way. “Over the years, the takeouts increased and the sit-downs lessened,” Wapnikck said. “COVID was why we completely went over to takeout, but it was going in that direction anyway.”

The church has about 35 members, Wapnick said, adding that Sunday service attendance is down from 30-plus people pre-COVID to less than a dozen.

“The way we’d like to see it is to have more involvement from the congregation and make it more of a fellowship sort of thing so that we’re all working together for the common good,” Valentine-Chase said. “But that part has become more and more difficult as our numbers have dwindled. We don’t see as many younger people joining things and people are just busy, I think. The economy is such that both parents are working and they have the weekends to recover.”

“I think we’re trying to reinvent ourselves because of this,” said Wapnick. “And I think becoming a more charitable organization is part of that.” 

Wapnick and Valentine-Chase will be at the church from 8 a.m. on Saturday until the last dinner goes out the door at 5:30 p.m.

“It’s a lot of work putting on these dinners,” Wapnick said. “But it is rewarding and sharing the profit with the food pantries makes it even more rewarding. We also have kind of a good time here, there’s a lot of camaraderie in working together for a common goal. Seeing people you haven’t seen in a while. So, you know, we try to make it fun.”