Middletown nonprofit HONOR joins Hudson Valley Gives to fight hardship

Middletown nonprofit HONOR is asking Orange County donors to help keep food on the table, beds open and emergency help available as hardship continues to hit local families. The agency will take part in Hudson Valley Gives on Wednesday, May 20, a 24-hour regional campaign built to drive online donations to nonprofits across seven Hudson Valley counties.

For HONOR, the need is immediate and measurable. The organization operates an adult shelter and a family shelter at its Middletown facility, and says its food pantry is open five days a week and is the single largest in Orange County. The pantry serves working families, individuals, veterans and seniors, making it one of the region’s most visible lines of defense against hunger and homelessness.

HONOR’s public profile shows the scale of that work. In 2023-2024, the nonprofit served 100,552 food pantry guests, housed 643 adults in emergency housing in Orange County and handled 26,057 calls through its 24/7 call center. The organization also served 140,171 nourishing meals at its shelters, made 2,000 meaningful contacts with people experiencing street homelessness, helped 60 people move from homelessness to housed through Housing First and enrolled 100 people in Health Homes in Orange and Sullivan counties. At A Friend’s House, 250 youth age 17 and under found safety and respite.

Hudson Valley Gives was created by the Community Foundation of Orange, Sullivan & Rockland to give charities in Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland and Westchester counties a single online platform for fundraising and visibility. The campaign site says donations go directly into each participating organization’s bank account, and nonprofits can compete for additional prize money funded by corporate sponsors. This year, 275 nonprofit organizations are registered.

The fundraiser has become a major regional giving event, with the campaign saying it has raised more than $5.5 million since it began and that last year’s effort brought in more than $1 million for area nonprofits. The Celebration of Success party is set for May 20 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Newburgh Brewing Co.

For HONOR, the campaign is about more than one day of donations. It is a test of whether Middletown’s crisis-response network can keep meeting the costs of shelter, meals, transportation, legal help, substance-use support, medical access and mental-health care for neighbors who have nowhere else to turn.