Morristown Rotary gets pandemic grant to provide thousands of meals

The Morristown Rotary usually is busy right around now preparing for its annual Taste of Morristown fundraiser.

But these are not normal times, and the Rotary has a different food-related mission: Feeding hungry people in this pandemic.

Rotary officials said Friday their chapter is receiving a $240,000 state grant, which will buy an estimated 24,000 set-price meals for those in need. Seven local restaurants will prepare the meals, for distribution by five social service agencies starting around mid-March.

“This award will allow us to provide tens of thousands of meals to those most in need in our community and to support local businesses struggling through these difficult economic times. We feel very fortunate to be a part of this effort,” said Morristown Rotarian Nick Walsh.

The grant is from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s new Sustain and Serve NJ program, which anticipates awarding $14 million to 27 organizations across the state.

One of those organizations, FeedNJ, also intends to help in Morristown, according to the EDA. The authority calculates its grants will buy 1.5 million meals from at least 160 New Jersey restaurants in nearly 70 municipalities, spanning in a dozen counties.

Morristown Rotarians will partner with seven downtown restaurants who helped them last year in a meal program dubbed Operation Hunger.

“The Morristown Rotary Club is thrilled to be able to build off the foundation set last spring with the first round of Operation Hunger,” said Walsh, manager of the Morristown project.

“Because of the hard work of Rotarians, restaurant partners, and generous support of donors throughout the first two rounds of Operation Hunger we were able to demonstrate to the NJEDA that we can run a program like this at scale,” he said, citing key support from chapter President Ray Wenzel and member Larry Goldfarb.

‘THEY ARE ROCK STARS’

Restaurant partners for the Rotary’s Operation Hunger 3.0 are:

• Fig & Lily Garden – 2 Cattano Ave.
• Greenpoint Juicery – 28 Speedwell Ave.
• Pascarella Brothers – 61 South St.
• Chef Fredy’s Table – 78 Speedwell Ave.
• Pomodoro’s – 125 Morris St.
• Minuteman Smokehouse & Grill–990 Mt. Kemble Ave.
• The Committed Pig– 28 W. Park Place

They will supply meals to Homeless Solutions Inc., Table of Hope, nourish.NJ, and the Morristown- and Morris County housing authorities.

“The Morristown Rotary are rock stars!” said Dan McGuire, CEO of Homeless Solutions Inc.

McGuire said the Rotary came to the rescue last year, when the HSI shelter in Morris Township went into lockdown to shield residents from COVID-19. This required the shelter to start serving lunches.

“Having to provide another daily meal became a significant additional expense and strained our staff, and Operation Hunger helped tremendously,” McGuire said.

“With the latest resurgence of the virus, we are again keeping as many guests as possible on-premises during the day. We are so grateful staff can stay focused on helping our guests find employment and housing while the Morristown Rotary provides essential meals through this grant,” he said.

Operation Hunger 3.0 will provide 75 meals, five nights per week through May 2021, to guests of the Table of Hope at Morristown’s Bethel AME Church, said Teresa Williams, executive director of the Spring Street Community Development Corp.

“We’re excited to be able to assist local restaurants, but also to be able to provide our guests with a variety of meals from various places over the next several months,” Williams said.

“This provides a great opportunity for us to reorganize and divert resources to our mobile pantry operation, which continues to see an unprecedented need.”