David Lee is reporting for The Columbia Paper hundreds of people came out to the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Chatham this week for the county's first free food distribution. The event was made possible by the combined efforts of the Northeast Regional Food Bank, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany and the Chatham, Ghent and Valatie food pantries. Susan Lintner, Director of Community Impact for the Regional Food Bank said, "We’ve done about 40 of these since the end of March. Now that’s about 30 a month. This is the first one in Columbia County.” In addition to dried goods, canned foods and milk, the distribution included fresh fruit and vegetables. In all, there were approximately 24 palettes of food. The distribution started at 9:30 a.m. and in less than an hour, approximately 100 vehicles had already gone through the line. In preparation for the distribution, each food pantry was tasked with rounding up 10 volunteers. The Chatham Police Department, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police all assisted with traffic flow, and the fairgrounds proved to be an excellent venue for the event, according to Lee. The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York is based in Latham, serves 23 counties in New York from the Canadian border to New Jersey and provides food for approximately 1,000 local pantries. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.