Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Rev. Richard Turpin of the Second Baptist Church in Catskill has announced the mass food distribution event conducted Wed., May 19, will be the last one. At the event, more than 500 35-lb. boxes of food were distributed. The funding for subsequent events has been eliminated by the federal government, Turpin said. “We’re coming out of a pandemic, so they (lawmakers) feel this program is not necessary now,” he said. The distribution was scheduled to began at 10 a.m., but it started early because of the line of cars waiting on Main Street for the event to begin, Turpin said. All 500 boxes had been handed out by 11 a.m. Earlier that same morning, approximately 750 boxes were given away at the Greene County YMCA in Coxsackie. The Second Baptist Church and the YMCA had hoped to increase the number of boxes this time around, but the supply from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was not available. Turpin said organizations on the U.S. West Coast stopped receiving supplies weeks ago. About 20 volunteers from the Second Baptist Church, Greene County Sheriff’s Office, Catskill Department of Parks and The Eliot at Catskill helped with the distribution by loading the boxes of food into vehicles. Turpin plans to continue looking for other funding sources for future food distributions. “The need is still out there,” Turpin said. “We’re just going to have to find another source.” The event this week was the fifth food distribution held by the church this year. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.