Morristown police know times are hard. They see it every day on the beat. And so, in the spirit of the season, they passed the hat among their ranks.
On Monday, members of PBA Local 43 presented a $2,300 check to the Interfaith Food Pantry.
“Years ago we gave out food baskets to those in need. We lost touch with that a little bit. We want to get back involved,” said Officer Mike Molnar.
“They do good work here,” added Officer Joe Heuneman. “As police officers, you hear about people’s problems. We just want to get more involved in the community.”
Rosemary Gilmartin and Carolyn Lake of the Interfaith Food Pantry said the money will help keep the pantry stocked after the holidays, when food donations tail off.
The need is staggering, when you consider that Morris County is among the nation’s wealthiest counties. The nonprofit pantry distributes seven tons of food per week, said Rosemary, the executive director.
Some 1,200 food baskets were given out at Thanksgiving; 650 Christmas turkeys are next. The pantry served 728 Morristown families last year, nearly twice the number served in Dover, second on the county list.
Demand at the pantry has increased by more than 300 percent since 2000, as measured by the amount of food distributed.
It shot up 30 percent last year and the only reason it has not continued spiking, Rosemary theorizes, is that people in need are relocating to cheaper regions.
She said an increasing percentage of the pantry’s clients have lost jobs, depleted their savings and face the grim choice of paying the mortgage or buying food.
“We’re doing a lot of counseling, and referring people to other agencies,” said Rosemary, who oversees a $3.2 million budget and seven full-time employees, three part-timers, about 260 regular volunteers and close to 1,000 others who pitch in occasionally. The agency’s motto is “Neighbors Helping Neighbors.”
To qualify for the pantry’s help, you must be a Morris County resident, have access to cooking facilities, and furnish income information and other personal details.
The Interfaith Food Pantry began 16 years ago in the basement of Morristown’s First Baptist Church, as a joint project with Assumption Church and St. Margaret’s Church of Morristown and Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Church in Cedar Knolls.
Churches, schools and the Girl Scouts continue to play crucial roles in collecting food for the pantry. Alliances with Grow It Green Morristown, the College of Saint Elizabeth and Rutgers University also have helped in various ways, Rosemary said. A church grant has subsidized the purchase of children’s books, to make family visits more pleasant.
For the last 11 years the pantry’s warehouse has been an ever-more-cramped basement in a county building on West Hanover Avenue in Morris Topwnship that housed the Morris View Nursing Home and now is occupied by Homeless Solutions Inc.
Plans are proceeding for a new 15,000-square-foot warehouse on the former grounds of Greystone Park State Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany. Over the last 18 months the pantry has raised $1.8 million and broken ground on the new facility, on land that it will rent from the county for $1 annually over the next 50 years.
Another $800,000 is needed to complete the interior of the warehouse, Rosemary said.
If you don’t have that much loose change, the pantry welcomes your donations of sodium-, gluten- and sugar-free foods.
Because healthy foods cost more, Rosemary explained, they often are absent from diets of people who are struggling. Diabetes, high blood pressure and other ailments are the unhappy result, she said.
BY THE NUMBERS: THE INTERFAITH FOOD PANTRY’S CLIENTS:
Ethnicity:
Hispanic/Latino 51 percent
Caucasian 33 percent
African American 12 percent
Other 4 percent
Age
60+ 10 percent
19-59 49 percent
0-18 41 percent
Size of Households
1 or 2 53 percent
3 or 4 36 percent
5 or 6 10 percent
7,8 or 9 1 percent
Primary Source of Income
Salary 53 percent
SS/Pension 8 percent
SSI 10 percent
Disability 8 percent
Public Assistance 3 percent
Unemployment insurance 6 percent
Child support 1 percent
Unknown/other/none 11 percent
Source: Interfaith Food Pantry 2009 Annual Report
