Money Needed for Effort That Feeds, Cheers Seniors

There’s a pretty good chance that if you dial 911 from within Lawrence Township or call 896-1111 – the non-emergency number for the township police station – the person who picks up the phone on the other end will be Norma Taylor.

For 15 years, as a dispatcher/communications operator for Lawrence Township Police Department, Taylor has been helping Lawrence residents and visitors to the township in their time of need, offering advice and assistance in every kind of situation, from mundane inquiries to life-threatening emergencies.

But now she needs your help. She needs your financial help – not for herself, but to instead come to the aid of some of the township’s less fortunate.

For several years now, Taylor has been the driving force behind Saul Funeral Homes’ holiday food basket program which benefits elderly residents of Lawrence and Hamilton townships – older folks at Lawrence Plaza Apartments on Princeton Pike and Alvin E. Gershen Apartments on Klockner Road who are either struggling financially to put food on the table or who are all alone because they don’t have any family or their families have abandoned them.

“Last year, there was a lady at the Gershen Apartments who had no food. All she had was oil and vinegar in her cabinet,” recalled Taylor, who lives in Lawrence Township. “When I heard about her, I felt so bad. So I went grocery shopping and I took the food over there. And [the apartment manager] wanted me to go up to the apartment and meet the lady. And it was a really old lady. And they had said she was kind of difficult. But when I walked in there with all that food, that lady cried and cried.”

Taylor’s involvement in the holiday food basket program began when she took a part-time job with Saul eight or so years ago. Her daughter, Mary Weber, is a funeral director for the group of funeral homes. “They always adopted families [around the holidays] and did food baskets and toys for kids,” she explained.

But, not happy with focusing on just one or two families each year, Taylor suggested a change a few years ago.

“When you’re poor you don’t ask for exclusive things. I was poor one time. I had food baskets delivered to me and I thought, ‘My God, this is fantastic. This is the nicest thing,’” she related. “So I said, you know, people forget old people. For some, their kids forget them, their whole families forget them, they’re like tossed to the side. What I wanted was 10 food baskets for Christmas. That’s all I wanted and I wanted to give them to old people. So the word kind of got out, and we got donations of $5, $10 here and there. And that first year, we did 80 baskets. Last year we did 160 baskets.”

Both Lawrence Township police unions – Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 209 and Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 119 – and Hamilton Township PBA Local 66 have been big supporters of Taylor’s efforts. Many officers have made generous individual donations on top of the money collectively given by the unions, Taylor said.

Numerous businesses in Lawrence and Hamilton have also contributed money to the cause, and the staff at the ShopRite supermarket at Mercer Mall has worked hard to help Taylor obtain the most food she can at the cheapest prices possible.

She said each basket last year contained nearly two dozen items, including pasta, sauce, hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, muffin mix, peanut butter, jelly, cereal, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, chicken soup, tomato soup, pudding, Jello, noodles, rice, cookies, apples, instant mashed potatoes, crackers, candy and toilet paper. Each basket also included a gift card to either ShopRite or Acme, courtesy of Saul Funeral Homes, she said.

Taylor is worried that this year’s drive will not be as successful. Sidelined for a while battling bronchitis, she got a late start collecting donations and, with the current state of the economy, the amount people are contributing is down.

“Things are so bad right now. It’s hard for people,” she said. “People that gave me $50 last year can only give me $25 this year, and I understand why.”

Last year she gathered over $4,000 in donations. Thus far this year, she’s collected about $1,800.

“The baskets were so filled last year. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to fill them that big this year, but I’m going to do the best that I can,” she said.

The food basket drive is clearly something near and dear to Taylor’s heart.

“You know, I’ve been there. I was divorced when my kids were little and I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from,” she said. “My kids lived on macaroni and tomatoes, loaves of bread, ketchup sandwiches. That’s what they ate for a long time, because I didn’t have it. I worked. I had an apartment I had to keep up with and the bills to go with it. So I know what it’s like to be poor. But I worked. These old people – they can’t work. They’re too old. Some of them can hardly walk.”

A personal tragedy has made this year’s effort even more important to Taylor. Her fiancé, Anthony Krause, passed away six months ago.

“This year it’s just really important that I make somebody happy,” she said, tearing up. “It’s quite important.”

Anyone wishing to make a donation can send a check payable to either Norma Taylor or Mary Weber in care of Saul Funeral Homes Inc., 3795 Nottingham Way, Hamilton, N.J. 08690. Anyone with questions can contact Taylor at (609) 954-4328.

Donations must be made no later than Dec. 17. Food baskets will be delivered to residents of Lawrence Plaza Apartments and the Alvin E. Gershen Apartments on Dec. 20.