Nourish Your Neighbor campaign underway again, aims to top record-setting 2026 drive

Red Hook schools’ annual push to feed Red Hook’s hungry – and raise as much as $20,000 for the community in the process – is underway with high hopes for topping last year’s record-setting mark.

The Nourish Your Neighbor campaign began Nov. 2. Each Red Hook Central School District building will collect non-perishable food items and personal care products to be donated to food banks and pantries around Red Hook. Bins will be located in each school.

The effort is a collaboration between the Red Hook Faculty Association and The Ascienzo Family Foundation. As it did last year, the Ascienzo Foundation is pledging $2 per item donated, with a goal of giving $20,000.

Last year, a record $17,446 was donated after the schools collected more than 8,700 items. The funding goes toward providing families food cards, items such as clothing and shoes, and scholarships.

The drive runs through Dec. 4, helping feed those in need for both the Thanksgiving and December holidays. Each week, staff collects the donations from the bins and posts the totals on bulletin boards. Linden Avenue Middle School collected the most items each of the last two years; its total of 3,046 a year ago was nearly 1,000 more than its winning count in 2024.