Lunch Break Celebrates Its 40-Year 'Love Story' In Red Bank

RED BANK, NJ — Lunch Break turned 40 this month, and its social service missions have grown with the years.

March 14 marked the milestone since Norma Todd and local leaders established a church food pantry.

And in its 40th year, a major $12 million capital program is underway to expand the current facility at 121 Drs. James Parker Blvd.

The building, under construction through late fall 2023, will incorporate additional space for on-site services, including the Life Skills Center, warehouse storage, administration and donation accessibility.

The Lunch Break mission continues under the leadership of the Board of Trustees and Executive Director Gwendolyn Love, who joined Lunch Break in 2008.

"What Mrs. Todd and the early volunteers created out of love for their neighbors is actually a great love story, and I'm so excited there is interest for others to know about those early days. There was a movement, a call to action, to meet a need in the community to feed the hungry,” said Love.

“Lunch Break stepped up to provide help,” she said.

The organization recalled some of its history, just as it celebrated the anniversary at a special celebration recently.

• In January 1983, Todd and 34 others gathered at the Friends Meeting House in Shrewsbury to discuss the issue of hunger in Monmouth County. They committed themselves to helping community members who found it difficult to provide the basics for their families by raising funds and recruiting volunteers.
• In March 1983, the Rev. Terence Rosheuvel provided the basement of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Red Bank to serve hot lunches.
• For a short time in 1985, Lunch Break moved its operations to the Masonic Temple on West Bergen Place.
• The following year, through combined efforts of many contributors and donors, Lunch Break opened the doors to its permanent home in Red Bank. A “community center” at Drs. James Parker Boulevard became "a place that clients and volunteers call home. It was a refuge for those distressed by history’s watershed moments: severe economic recessions, natural disasters such as hurricanes and viral pandemics," the organization said.

Rosheuvel wrote in his 1988 book “Loaves and Fishes: The Lunch Break Story" that “Lunch Break - and indeed anything that genuinely brings people together - has a value far greater than its size or its almost accidental history might suggest. It represents the hope that we can rehumanize our society and begin to re-establish the social values that have all but disappeared.”

Thanks to the passion and dedication of volunteers, board members, staff, and the generous community members, Lunch Break continues to build on Norma Todd’s dream, the organization says.

Apart from its light breakfast and lunches six days a week, it has a community dinner every Friday.

During construction, there is temporary meal service at the St. Anthony of Padua Parish Center, right down the street in Red Bank.

The agency's vision is to lead as a comprehensive food, nutrition, social service and life skills resource for community members, the organization says.

“By being one-on-one with people – that’s when change occurs and that's Lunch Break's greatest strength,” Love said.

Lunch Break provides basic necessities, including food security, as well as employment training, housing solutions, resume coaching, job placement resources, college prep guidance and vocational workshops for high school juniors and seniors. There is also free financial counseling to hundreds of families and individuals living at or below the poverty line in Monmouth County and beyond.

Governed by a leadership team, including the Board of Trustees and Executive Director Love, the organization relies on its network of more than 2,000 volunteers, which includes corporate and business partnerships.

In 2022, Lunch Break saw an even greater demand for groceries, with more than 24,000 food pickups. The same holds true for meals, with more than 10,000 meals delivered to the homebound and 12,000 to the Pan American motel in addition to the 96,000-plus served.

In New Jersey alone, 657,320 people, including 175,830 children, are food insecure, according to a 2022 Feeding America and Hunger Free New Jersey report. That means 1 in 14 individuals and 1 in 11 children live in homes without consistent access to adequate food.