Written by Jan Nigro, September 2025

Gretchen Rymarchyk is from Lafayette NY and came to Ithaca for grad school. She has a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in social work and a PhD in policy analysis & planning. She’s also taught, and done a lot of social work in the community here. She retired from Cornell and now is a therapist in private practice.

“I first got involved with FDN when I saw on the Showing up for Racial Justice listserv an opportunity with FDN and felt drawn to it as a way to offer service to the community.” She began by picking up food from the 3 GreenStars and dropping it off at a food pantry at Southside Community Center. Now she also picks up from the P&C Fresh and fills in when FDN needs a volunteer as jobs come up.

She enjoys the spirit and enthusiasm of the people who volunteer at FDN. “All the FDN people are friendly and all the program people and the recipients are friendly as well. Everybody is happy to see you.” Like all volunteers in FDN she believes in the purpose of the organization. ”I really love the idea of reducing waste in any way that we can. And I love the way that FDN does that.” She also appreciates the warm community feeling that FDN inspires in people. “I like meeting the people at the places where I’m picking up groceries. Now there’s a couple GreenStar people that if I see them out in the wild they say hi to me. Like they know who I am. So that’s kind of cool.”

Outside of FDN Gretchen enjoys spending time outdoors. “I like to play outside. I like to garden. I like to ride my bicycle. I rode my bike on the Empire Trail across the state last year from Buffalo to Albany in little bits, all in one summer by myself. I like to cross-country ski. I like to go sailing. I like to knit when it’s not good weather. I also recently joined the Finger Links Curling Club which I really enjoy.”

Gretchen has a 20-year-old daughter starting her junior year at Boston University. “I’m super proud of her.” The idea of rescuing food seems to be a family trait. “My dad, when he was alive, would go every weekend to a grocery store and pick up the extra donuts and take them to a food pantry. So I kind of was inspired a little bit by my dad and like doing it in his honor at this point.”