Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, Move on From Controversy

The national headlines are fading, the television crews are gone and the coffee shop talks have changed to other subjects. The food pantry controversy is slowly becoming a thing of the past, allowing two local groups to get back to what they do best — helping people.

The Harrison Food Pantry and Harrison Meals on Wheels program were both affected when six town employees for allegedly stealing food and clothing from the pantry. But each has moved forward, fulfilling their important role within the Harrison community without missing a beat.

The shelves in the , which supplies food to families in need throughout Harrison, are more full than ever these days. Local unions and organizations donated thousands to the pantry in the weeks following the arrests, a man in West Harrison donated more than 100 cooked chickens.

"There's been a great outpouring of people that have made donations and really just pitched in to help," said Louis DiBouno, a recent college graduate who now works part-time in the office. "Out of all the negative press that came from whatever transpired, a lot of positive came too."

DiBouno, who grew up in Harrison, said that when he accepted the part-time job in the community services office he had no idea his predecessor, Florence D'Imperio, was facing a felony charge for her alleged role in a heist from the local pantry on Crotona Avenue.

Other things have also changed. Security is more of a priority at the pantry, and all the locks were changed the week of the arrests, said Nina Marraccini, Harrison director of community services. She added that things could have gone one of two ways after news of the arrests broke — people could have disowned the pantry or gathered around it to help.

Thankfully, the community chose the ladder.

Meanwhile, Harrison never stopped operating when D'Imperio was arrested. The 91-year-old had served as a part-time town employee, but was also the director of the meals on wheels program for more than 20 years. She had been with the program longer than anyone there now can remember.

"We were very, very, upset about it," said Dulcie Acompora, a volunteer who has taken over as director. "We worked with Flo for so many years and she was somebody that we had grown to admire, we were all devastated by what happened."

Although the town works with the meals on wheels program, it is not a town entity. Food for the meals on wheels program is sent out from and delivered to about 30 senior citizens who pay $7 per day. It's only connection to the food pantry is through D'Imperio, but her arrest still led to a dip in volunteers.

"We had some volunteers resign because it put Harrison in such a bad light that they weren't sure they wanted to be affiliated with the meals on wheels program," Acompora said. "It was difficult in the beginning to pick up because we were all just volunteers, we didn't really know what to do." 

But as the dust settles, things are starting to come together for the meals on wheels program as well. Volunteers who stayed have worked hard to cover for anyone who left the program, Acompora said. This week alone six new volunteers signed up to drop off food.

Moving forward indeed.

Both Harrison Meals on Wheels and the Harrison Food Pantry continue to accept donations and volunteers. Meals on Wheels can be reached at 670-3027, the Community Services Office can be reached at 914-670-3026.

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