ROCHESTER, N.Y. — For five years, Jerry Bedford’s been feeding his community by keeping these shelves at Penfield Hope stocked.

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the busiest for food pantries across the country. At Penfield Hope, the shelves will be empty by the end of the day.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the need for food over the last year. we can measure that by the number of appointments we’re making," said Co-Director Cathy Kamp.

Kamp saw such a need she recently moved Penfield Hope into this bigger space. Kamp also works to address any other problems. 

“Not just giving handouts, but really get to know people and understand underlying problems and also what is going to make them feel good," said Kamp. 

Shelves get filled with donations from local grocery stores and businesses. Whatever doesn’t get taken by appointments gets delivered to other food pantries in some of Rochester’s poorest zip codes.

“Over the course of four working days, we delivered close to 8,000 pounds of donated foods. Four tons of food to the city of Rochester," said Bedford.

“People don’t understand a small act of kindness can have a big impact. I didn’t know that five years ago. I know that now," said Bedford.