'Snack-O-Lantern': Mahwah Pumpkins Recycled As Food For Rescue Animals

MAHWAH, NJ — After the recent death of someone close to them, Lynne Berry and her daughter tried to focus on things other than the loss. In a fortuitous turn of fate, the two came into contact last year with Jean Elizabeth, who, every fall, voluntarily collects leftover pumpkins to take to a Pennsylvania animal rescue service to feed the livestock.

Just a few months ago, Berry asked Elizabeth, who lives in Bergenfield, if she could become a regional representative for the volunteer effort in Mahwah, i.e. someone whom to round up and whose address to drop off pumpkins during the fall season.

"Doing this has saved me and my daughter from slipping into misery after the passing," Berry told Patch. "Every person I speak to gets so happy or excited about the work we're doing. It makes them feel great, and, in turn, it is like a hundred individual Christmas mornings for us."

She, along with her daughter, now drive periodically to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, to take the pumpkins to Billy's New Hope Barn. Theirs and Elizabeth's goal this year is to collect a whopping 1,000 pumpkins, an increase over last year's 800 that were collected.

"I know my Mahwah peeps will come through with flying colors," she said on Facebook. "I told her, 'Mahwah will easily get you those 200.'"

Berry is asking residents to bring their pumpkins to 50 East Crescent Avenue in Mahwah. She noted that the Pennsylvania farm accepts only uncarved, unpainted pumpkins to feed the animals — the fruit is believed to improve digestion and act as a source of vitamins and minerals.

"Darla, the blind cow, absolutely loves pumpkins," Berry added.

She said that she will be making a pumpkin run to the farm this week and again after Thanksgiving.

"It has been a blast," she said. "It taps you into the positive, good side of human nature. Sometimes, we get too focused on everything negative that we fail to take notice of the innate good in people, and of how one small gesture pays back in a million ways."