WILDWOOD — It’s the season of giving.
The generosity that is often lacking during the other 11 months of the year is seen in abundance now; especially within organizations that are designed to help a community’s less fortunate, like the United Way here.
“Currently it is a feast,” said Suzanne Nardi, executive director of the United Way of Cape May County which oversees the lunch program and food pantry located at First Baptist Church at Maple and Atlantic avenues. “We are completely inundated for November and December.”
“The other months, especially the summer months, it is a famine,” she told the Herald Nov. 23. “I’m grateful for the donations, but people are still hungry in June.”
She explained that the function of the United Way is to help care for people all year long.
The number of people using the services during the winter has gone up from last year.
“In October we hit 58 (people) in one day, that is a January number,” Nardi said. “We have seen numbers above 50 since the fall hours started. The demand for food is high.”
Last year the numbers were in the 30s during the month of October.
And Nardi sees all kinds of folks come in for a hot lunch or those seeking a free bag of groceries. There are those who work in the tourism industry, others in education, and some who clean motel rooms or work as clerks at grocery stores. Some come in search of help with their families in tow. Others are trying to stretch a few hundred dollars of take-home pay over rent and bills alone.
The numbers of “younger people,” those that are 17 or 18 years old, are also growing, she added.
But all are welcome, said Nardi.
Every Thursday, for the past three years, there’s a free hot lunch for the hungry at the church’s social hall. “Hot Lunch Empowering through Education” is an informational meal that brings aid organizations together with people, who mostly have no means of transportation, over a hot meal.
In the summer, a bag lunch is available.
The food pantry, she said, is open Thursdays from 10-11a.m., and will open for emergencies at any time. People are only eligible for the pantry once a month, she added.
During the duration, they must make the best out of a bag of groceries that usually contains canned vegetables, canned beef, soup, macaroni and cheese, bread, and rice.
But Nardi has “seen it all” when it comes to donations.
“Sometimes it looks like people are just cleaning out their cupboards,” she said. “Giving is wonderful, but giving something that people can actually use is truly meaningful.”
Nardi explains that while she is grateful for all donations, they should be appropriate.
She said that she has seen boxes of fancy bread and dips.
“People trying to make ends meet are not going to need fancy bread. They need something like a can of beef stew to warm them and nourish them,” Nardi said. “Just think before you donate.”
For example, many people who use the pantry do not have access to an oven, so microwaveable dishes are in high demand. Additionally, pop-top cans are very useful, because not everyone has a can opener lying around their kitchens.
Fresh vegetables, fruit, milk and eggs are more difficult to come by at the pantry. Special care has to be paid to expiration dates.
“No one wants a gallon of milk that has already expired,” she said. “The food also has to keep from the time we get the donation until the pantry is open on Thursdays.”
Some personal products are often a luxury that many of the working poor have to forgo, said Nardi. The pantry has some stock of toilet paper, tissues, and feminine care products, but not in the numbers she’d like.
“The key is really educating people,” Nardi said of donating.
She said that it would be appreciated if anyone wanting to donate would call the organization first to ask what was needed.
Nardi can be reached at 729-2002.
Contact Suit at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 25 or lsuit@cmcherald.com
Lower Township – Who are these people that are obvious experts on trash cans and leaf pick-up? Maybe they don't have any trash to put out or leaves in their yard!!
