Dumont Charity Hit With 400% Rent Hike, Renegotiating Lease: Director

DUMONT, NJ — With its lease set to expire on Thursday, a Dumont hunger-relief organization alleged on its website that its landlord Calvary United Methodist Church is raising the rent 400% in a lease renewal. On Tuesday, however, the charity said it received a signed agreement from the church extending its lease for one month, through July 31, while the entities work together to renegotiate the rent.

The Food Brigade, which has rented out space at the church for the past year, claimed on its website that the church threatened to shut it down, unless it agreed to the rent increase. Yet, in an email on Thursday, the charity's executive director Carmine DeMarco said it is working with incoming pastor Schuyler Berdan on a "new long-term lease."

"The crisis appears to have been averted for now," DeMarco said in the email. He did not specify the rent amount, when asked.

The food distribution center, on its website, alleged that outgoing pastor Elaine Wing was the person behind the rent increase, and that she had refused the charity's request, made on June 14, to extend the lease to renegotiate.

"I am not in a position make any comments on (the allegations)," pastor Elaine Wing said, referring to the Greater New Jersey Conference of the United Methodist Church for additional information.

“Calvary UMC is working with the Food Brigade over the next month to reach a lease agreement and seek to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship between the church, the community, and the Food Brigade in a time of great need and high economic demands. All parties are highly optimistic that an agreement can be reached, and the community will continue to be blessed in many ways," a spokesperson with the Greater New Jersey Conference said on Wednesday.

The Food Brigade has distributed roughly 4 million pounds of food for local residents, and, in June alone, has distributed food to 2,020 people in need.

In the past few days, a number of clients have sent emails, which can be viewed on the website, each asking the church to allow operations at the charity to continue, and explaining the impact on families if it is shut down.