“I will squeeze that $5,000 until it screams,” said Lisa Zayas, co-founder and president of Willow Roots, the Pine Plains food pantry and thrift shop. She and her husband, Nelson, the co-founder and treasurer, were at home discussing a grant from Sky High Farm that will help them feed the roughly 50 households that rely on Willow Roots on a regular basis.
“Our relationship dates back to the beginning of their work,” said Sky High Farm executive director Josh Bardfield. “We’ve been providing fresh produce, eggs and meat since they were distributing food from their garage.” That was nearly 10 years ago. The nonprofit grows organic produce and raises livestock for meat, which it donates to food pantries as part of its mission. In 2022, the farm began a micro-grant program to support “projects helmed by farmers and food justice advocates” across the country, from Georgia to Puerto Rico, New York to California.
Last year, Bardfield encouraged Willow Roots to apply. For 2025, Sky High Farm reserved $350,000 for the grants “but we received 700 applications with a total of $9.5 million in requests.” While the independent grant committee didn’t select Willow Roots, Sky High Farm decided to budget an additional $50,000 “to address projects that are closer to home,” he said. Willow Roots, which had initially requested $10,000, got a partial grant for $5,000.
The need is great — if often hidden. In 2023, the North East Community Center (NECC) in Millerton, with funding by the City of New York School of Public Health, published the results of a study that included interviews with 100 low- and middle-income residents and 52 farmers. It covered the “tri-corner” area that includes the northeast quadrant of Dutchess County, the southeast quadrant of Columbia County and the northwest quadrant of Litchfield county in Connecticut. Population: 37,000.
While 12% of residents live below the federal poverty line, the study found, another 26% live above the poverty line but “below a basic survival budget established by the United Way.” Said Jordan Schmidt, who runs the food pantry at NECC, “The cost of living in this region has outpaced wages for a large percentage of our workforce. You can have two working adults who don’t make what it actually costs to meet living expenses.”
Over the last decade, Willow Roots has expanded to help meet these growing needs. Before it existed officially, Lisa was making hot meals for neighbors. One day in February 2016, the Zayas were shopping at ALDI in Kingston, and mentioned to the manager that they had heard a neighbor’s house had burned down. The store owner gave them a box and told them to fill it with $150 in food.
“There was a knock on the door, and these two strangers were standing there with a whole ham, chicken, fish, canned goods, fresh produce—and a hot chicken casserole, with paper plates and napkins,” recalled Cathy Fitzpatrick, a lifelong Pine Plains resident. Her husband worked with Nelson in the Pine Plains school system, but she had never met them. It was just a day after she and her husband, their daughter, and her child, two dogs, and a cat had been temporarily relocated after their house was entirely destroyed by a basement fire.
Eventually, Willow Roots incorporated as an official nonprofit. Once the Fitzgeralds got back on their feet, they started donating fresh produce from their garden, giving money and volunteering time. Meanwhile, other family members in need have benefited from Willow Roots at times. She values the kindness and dignity they provide to people in need, adding, “In the countryside, you have strong proud families, and asking for help can be very difficult to do.”
While food banks set up for emergency needs play an important role, the challenge of sustained food insecurity requires a different approach, said Schmidt. “Shelf stable foods in an emergency are often low in nutrition and won’t help a family stay well.” Offering fresh nutritious foods, however, can be “part of someone’s food safety net. That’s something that Willow Roots does very well—the way the space feels, where people have choice, maintains dignity.”
Picking up food at Willow Roots is a shopping experience. When you walk in, there’s a “welcome room,” where nonfood items from toilet paper to shampoo to detergent are available; each family can pick up to five items. Outside, clothing geared to the season is available.
People can choose what they need — but it’s an honor system. “We have stations you go to, which allows us to break up our inventory into different sections, like frozen food and dry goods,” said Nelson. Fresh produce is in bins outside. “You come in and pick what you’re going to use, but if you don’t need it, you can leave it, because you know it’ll be there for you the next time. Nothing gets wasted.”
It may take longer for participants to go through the line, Nelson said, but that allows for conversation: “Lisa is great at talking to them about their personal lives. Some people are really isolated. We’re more than a pantry — we’re networking neighbors. If someone is having surgery, for example, we’ll make sure they’re OK. We’ll deliver a customized package.”
The Zayases plan to use the new grant to bridge food gaps. As members of the Regional Food Bank of Northeast New York, they purchase many foods at greatly reduced prices, often 16 cents on the dollar. “But it’s hit or miss,” said Nelson. “We really haven’t had meat offerings from them in a couple of months.” So they also buy retail, with a frugal eye.
“Lisa just brought me a pizza a few days ago,” said Bruce Silvernale, a former Pine Plains neighbor who now lives in Stanford. He doesn’t have a working car, so Willow Roots sends him a delivery twice a month — or more often in a pinch. They met about a decade ago, when he was a neighbor. One day, Lisa found him passed out. She got him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with diabetes — his blood glucose level was 800 mg/dl (normal is under 100).
“The doctor was amazed I was still living,” he recalled. When he got home, “I was sick with sugar diabetes but I had no money to buy food. Lisa brought me hot cooked meals almost every single day.” Silvernale, who served in the Air Force during Vietnam and worked for 40 years for a medical supply firm, often driving a forklift, still benefits from Willow Roots. These days, he’s sticking to a healthier diet to help manage his diabetes, so he prefers vegetables and salad greens, eggs, and beans — with an occasional sweet that Lisa might slip in. “To know Lisa and Nelson,” he said, “is to know what a blessing is.”
Willow Roots is located at 7730 South Main St. in Pine Plains. The food pantry, thrift shop, and flea market are open from 10 to 11 a.m. on the first and third Saturday of each month. If you have questions, text 518-751-0164 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.