By Elena Flash, September 2023 Mike is a lifelong Ithacan with a passion for building community. Mike, one of 8 children, grew up in a household committed to social justice and community service. He followed his family heritage devoting his 40 year career to human service and nonprofit management. Mike also served Tompkins County as […]
By Brigid Higgins, May 2022 As an intern at FDN, I have spent every Friday morning for the last few months volunteering alongside longtime FDN volunteers Robbie Sanders and Nancy Siegele. The Friday morning pick-up has become second nature to them both; watching them work so intuitively is incredibly impressive. Nancy and Robbie know what […]
Written by Brigid Higgins, February 2022 Karen Comstock and Vicki Gayle both began volunteering with FDN about eight years ago when Karen’s friend and FDN board member Carolyn Tomaino asked Karen to join the board. Karen was not familiar with FDN at the time and confessed that she was hesitant to join the board at […]
Written by Elena Flash, February 2022 If you had over 1300 sandwiches and packaged entrees that you did not need, what would you do? Call Friendship Donation Network! Last month when overnight temperatures were near zero and daytime highs only in the 20s, Cornell Dining prepared meals for students who would need to quarantine upon returning to […]
Gretchen Rymarchyk, volunteer since 2018: I became involved with FDN via an email from the local Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) group of a shift opening once a month to service a Southside Community Center Food Pantry. As a single parent who works full time, it’s really hard for me to commit to volunteer […]
