GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Public Library is now home to a food pantry bin.

The idea for the bin came about gradually.

Library Director Tim Wiles said that the library recently ran several different drives to benefit the Guilderland Food Pantry. The library offered amnesty on fines for overdue books to those who returned the books together with food items. One drive was called “Can Your Fines,” and another “Fine Foods.”

One day, the directors of the pantry, Sue Hennessey and Mark Hopper, stopped in to thank him, Wiles said, and together they came up with the idea of placing a bin in the lobby.

Wiles posted a photo of the new bin on the library’s Facebook page on Feb. 23, and said that the post had gotten about 450 “likes” as of Tuesday. He said that he didn’t want to seem ungrateful for support on Facebook, but that, if “just one out of every three people who ‘liked’ the post actually put some food in the bin, we’d be in good shape.”

He said that about 15 items had been donated as of Tuesday. He would like to see the bin “overflowing.”            

Hennessey told The Enterprise that the pantry is in particular need of paper supplies and personal items. She said, “People tend to think in terms of canned goods. But we really struggle to get paper towels, shampoo, women’s products, that kind of thing. We always have an overabundance of soup and tuna fish.”

The pantry serves about 120 families, or about 260 people, she said, including about 100 children. 

People may think of Guilderland as an affluent suburb, but, according to statistics from the State Education Department, need is on the rise there. In 2007-08, five percent of students in the school district were disadvantaged; by 2014, that percentage had nearly tripled, climbing to 14.9 percent. Of the district’s elementary schools, figures are highest in Altamont, where 26.5 percent of students are economically disadvantaged.

“I can’t imagine doing well in school when you’re hungry,” Wiles said.