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:

RESCUE MISSION OF TRENTON

• Site: 98 Carroll Street, Trenton, NJ 08609
• Mailing address: P.O. Box 790, Trenton, NJ 08605
• Phone: 609-695-1436 ext. 139
• Website: www.rescuemissionoftrenton.org
• Hours: Shelter - 365 days per year: 4pm-8am
  Soup Kitchen - Sun: 11am-12pm; 5th Sat of each month: 11am-12pm
• Contact: Joyce Williams
  This site provides an emergency shelter, food and clothing to homeless individuals.
• Food Needs: perishable and non-perishable food
• Volunteer Needs: workers to secure hygiene items for the homeless
• Special Needs: funding for agency operation

RISE (Formerly Community Action Service Center, Inc.)

• Site: 116 North Main St., Hightstown, NJ 08550
• Mailing address: PO Box 88, 116 Main St., Hightstown
• Phone: (609) 443-4464
• Website: info@rise-community-services.org
• Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm
• Contact: Leslie Koppel, Exec. Director
  This site provides families and individuals with a food pantry, emergency shelter assistance, help finding a job, finding affordable childcare, summer program for children and domestic violence prevention for adults and youths. 
• Food Needs: non-perishable foods, rice, beans, soups, cereal, cartons of milk, Similac, baby foods. 
• Volunteer Needs: office help; food pantry, thrift store, food pick-up (holiday time)
• Volunteer Requirements: 18 years and older
• Special Needs: funding for all programs, food donations and holiday gifts.

SALVATION ARMY

• Site: 575 E. State Street, Trenton, NJ 08601
• Mail: P.O. Box 60, Trenton, NJ 08601
• Phone: 609-599-9373
• Hours: Office and Day Center - Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm
• Contact: Captain John Ferreira
  This site provides a day center for the homeless, a children's program, and Christmas baskets. NO food pantry at this site.
• Volunteer Needs: help with youth programs
• Volunteer Requirements: age 18 or older
• Special Needs: funding

SKEET'S PANTRY AT THE FIRST PRESYBERTIAN CHURCH

• Site: 22 South Main Street, Cranbury, NJ 08512
• Phone: 609-395-0897
• Website: www.cranburypres.org
• Hours: Third Friday of the month: 9AM-11AM
• Church office hours: Monday-Friday 9am-4pm.
• Contact: Jane Huff
• Food Needs: tuna, pasta, rice, dried milk, beans, canned fruit and vegetables, hygiene products
• Volunteer Needs: food drives

TRENTON AREA SOUP KITCHEN (TASK)

• Site: 72 1/2 Escher Street, Trenton, NJ 08605
• Mail: P.O. Box 872, Trenton, NJ 08605
• Phone: 609-695-5456 ext. 101
• Email: dennism@trentonsoupkitchen.org
• Website: www.trentonsoupkitchen.org
• Hours: Mon-Thurs: 9am-5pm; Fri: 9am-1pm
• Contact: Dennis C. Micai
  This site provides a soup kitchen, clothing, social services, and adult education.
• Food Needs: everything
• Volunteer Needs: people to work on the serving line and to do pantry support and tutors for adult education program.
• Volunteer Requirements: age 13 or over