Your Neighbors Need Your Help

Hurricane Irene has left local emergency food supplies low–at a time when food pantries and soup kitchens already were stretched thin.

Local food agencies like Elijah’s Promise in New Brunswick, The Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton, the South Brunswick Food Pantry, RISE of Hightstown, Skeet’s Pantry in Cranbury, Homefront in Lawrence and others need our help to help our neighbors make it from day to day and week to week.

Patch will be working with local food pantries and soup kitchens in the coming months to raise their profiles in the community and enlist community support for their missions. We will be hosting events and lending our site to the groups fighting hunger in an effort to keep the issue—one of the most important facing Americans today—squarely within the public eye.

“In central N.J. and across the nation,” reports Elijah’s Promise, “the numbers of people facing ‘food insecurity’—those without an assured ability to acquire nutritious foods in socially acceptable ways-- are growing. One in seven Americans are considered ‘food insecure,’ the highest number in decades.”

Nationally, according to the New Brunswick soup kitchen, there are 49.1 million people who live in food insecure households—a terrifying 35.6 percent increase from the 36.2 million in 2007. About one in 10 New Jersey households are food insecure.

“In central N.J., those in need are our own neighbors—senior citizens on fixed incomes, single-parent families, the unemployed, and the working poor—who struggle to make ends meet,” Elijah’s Promise writes on its website. “They are young and old, living in families or alone.”

And this was before the hurricane hit.

"One of our workforce development program participants, a single mom with four children, now has a partially collapsed ceiling and other water damage and has no other place to stay,” says Carolyn Biondi, interim executive director for the Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton. “We are working to help her get necessary repairs made and to connect her with emergency housing."

The organization—and all of the others—desperately need both food and monetary donations to help them continue to serve their growing client list. The economy, after all, is showing now signs of turning around.

"As we are all too aware, Hurricane Irene caused major disruption and for some families, dislocation in Mercer County,” says Biondi says. “Our low-income neighbors across the county will need to replenish food supplies after power outages, so food donations will be greatly appreciated.”

Consider making a contribution to or volunteering with any of the following organizations:

SOUTH BRUNSWICK SOCIAL SERVICES AND SOUTH BRUNSWICK FOOD PANTRY

Site: 540 Ridge Road, Municipal Complex, Monmouth Junction, 
P.O. Box 190, Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852
Phone: 732-329-4000, ext. 7674 or 7672
Email: lwolf@sbtnj.net Website: www.sbtnj.net Hours: Office - Mon-Fri: 8:30am-4:30pm
Pantry - by appointment Tues: 12:30-2:30pm & Thurs: 9:30-11:30am
Contact: LouAnne Wolf, Social Services Director
This site serves South Brunswick residents only; it provides a food pantry, a holiday program for needy families during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and assistance with certain financial situations based on department guidelines. It is also a Salvation Army site for South Brunswick and Plainsboro, and through their guidelines can assist financially as well as send twenty children to a week long summer sleep away camp.
Food Needs: frozen food, non-perishable items such as beverages (juice, coffee, tea, water, parmalat milk), cereal, breakfast items, canned pasta like Chef Boyardee, canned meats, rice, potatoes, snack food, peanut butter, jelly, pasta, pasta sauce, canned fruits
Volunteer Needs: volunteers mostly needed during the holidays beginning in November and running through Christmas – Please call.
Volunteer Requirements: over age 18 preferred, able to do some lifting, sorting, & packing food boxes
Special Needs: personal care items such as shampoo, deodorant, lotion, napkins, toilet paper, paper towels, plates, utensils

ST. VINCENT DEPAUL SOCIETY, ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY R.C. CHURCH

Site: 45 Henderson Road, Kendall Park

Phone: 732-297-9713

Website: http://www.staugustinenj.org/parish/org_social.html#stvicentdepaul

Provides an array of services including counseling, a food pantry and potentially financial support. Pantry collects on the third Sunday of the month.

ELIJAH'S PROMISE

Site: 18 Neilson Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-545-9002 Email: lfinston@elijahspromise.net (Lisanne Finston)
dlapp@elijahspromise.net (Diana Lapp) 
Website: www.elijahspromise.org. www.elijahspromise.net Hours: Mon-Fri: 8am-7pm; Sat & Sun: 10am-5pm
Contact: Lisanne Finston, Executive Director (extension 111)
Diana Lapp, Donations and Volunteer Coordinator (extension 117)
This site provides a soup kitchen, clothing, health and services outreach for people with HIV/AIDS.
Food Needs: meats, staples, non-perishables
Volunteer Needs: Contact site.
Special Needs: paper supplies