Pantry offers more than one kind of sustenance
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP - The fledgling Community Outreach Food and Clothing Pantry has been around only since August. But the nonprofit group is already feeding between 600 and 700 people each month.

"We had no idea it was going to explode the way it did," said John Feeney, program director. "It just speaks to a tremendous need." And that need will increase over the next week and a half, with the Thanksgiving holiday looming, he said.

Anyone wishing to make a donation for the holiday can drop off stuffing mixes, dry mashed potatoes, canned vegetables and cranberry sauce, and turkeys, Feeney said.

"We are not hurting for food," Feeney said. "But if they happen to pick up an extra turkey, we are here if they want to bring it to us. We anticipate getting hit pretty hard this week."

The pantry, located at 236 Brick Blvd., offers more than sustenance.

"When people come in here, we don't treat them like a number," he said. "We are not judgmental because of their situation. We have one-on-one counseling we do with them. We talk to them about how they got to the place they are in."

The pantry was the brainchild of Joseph Sorce, pastor of New Beginnings Christian Fellowship. Church services are held in the same building as the pantry, Feeney said.

"The pastor wanted to find a way where we could do better impacting the community," Feeney said. "He felt at the time that we weren't doing enough."

Anyone who comes in for help gets a package of food that may include soups, vegetables, pasta, sauce, dried beans, potatoes, cereals, dairy products, eggs, margarine, ground beef and chicken, Feeney said. Most of the food is purchased with church funds from the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties in Neptune, he said.

"We work in partnership with them," Feeney said. "They provide us the food and we purchase the food from them."

The pantry also receives food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and buys from local supermarkets, he said. The pantry serves a wide range of people

"We are seeing anybody from teenagers who have been put out of their homes, single mothers, to the newest class of people, the working poor," he said. "Both parents are working, but there is not enough food coming in."

The pantry does see some homeless clients, usually those who are put up in local motels by the Ocean County Board of Social Services, Feeney said.

Work at the nonprofit pantry brings "mixed feelings," Feeney said.

"We help people, not just with food, but with some direction, to kind of break free from the cycle they have been in," he said. "But at the same time, there is the knowledge that the next day will bring a whole new group of people who are hurting."

Food and clothing donations are always welcome.

The pantry hours are Monday nights from 5-8 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It will be open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, but closed for Thanksgiving and Nov. 24.

For more information, call (732) 451-0777 or e-mail destinycdc78@aol.com.