Free Takeout - Even Pizza - Offered In Howell From Southard Grange

HOWELL, NJ — The Southard Grange #218 is offering free, prepared meals to go every Friday.

The casual meals can be picked up at the Grange from 2 p.m. to 3 pm. Fridays until the meals run out, the organization says.

An organization called Soup Kitchen 411 works with area restaurants and delivers the meals to the Grange, which then distributes them. The meals are prepared by local restaurants and change weekly, and sometimes have offered such items as boxed pizza, organizers say.

The program is expected to continue through the year unless otherwise extended.

The grange is located at 4860 Route 9 south in Howell 07731.

The Grange is a nonprofit organization, part of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, its website says.

The Grange has meetings the first Tuesday at every month at 7 p.m.

"New faces are welcome," said David Barry, a past president, who is an engineer professionally.

He said the Grange also hosts a community theater which is also looking for volunteers, actors and writers.

The Grange is also raising funds for a new roof, Barry said.

A Grange is a social organization that "encourages families to band together to promote the economic, the community and agriculture," its online information says.

According to a website, the first Grange, Grange #1, was founded in 1868 in Fredonia, N.Y.

Southard Grange #218 was founded in 1932. The building it is in was originally a two-room schoolhouse in the 1900s, the website of the organization says.