During a presentation to the League of Women Voters Monday local Food Pantry directors discussed the dozens of area families who need assistance.
By: Leon Tovey
Editor’s note: Part of an occasional series focusing on issues of hunger and financial need in the Jamesburg and Monroe area.
MONROE There are dozens of needy families in the area, but as Susan Schneider-Baker pointed out to the Monroe Township League of Women Voters Monday, the term "needy" doesn’t necessarily mean what it used to mean.
"A lot of people are working 40 to 60 hours a week, but it’s still not enough," she said. "Think about it: if you’re only bringing home $250 a week from a job in one of the local warehouses and your rent is $900 a month that doesn’t leave you with a lot of room to breathe."
Ms. Schneider-Baker, director of the Jamesburg Presbyterian Church’s Deacons’ Food Cupboard, estimated that 25 percent of those she sees at the pantry fall into this category. And that number, she said, is on the rise.
During a two-hour presentation to the league, which is working on a study of area food assistance programs and services in the area, Ms. Schneider-Baker and Bonnie Leibowitz, acting director of the Monroe Township Office on Aging, which oversees the township Food Pantry, explained that like many other things in New Jersey, the definition of "poverty" is changing.
While few area residents’ incomes fall below the poverty line as established by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (less than $20,000 a year for a family of four), the high cost of living in this part of New Jersey makes it hard even for those with full-time jobs to keep enough food on their tables, Ms. Schneider-Baker said.
"Most of the people I talk to have not ever gone without a meal," she said. "But many have gone to bed hungry."
Ms. Schneider-Baker said that of the 180 to 225 people residents of Jamesburg, Monroe, Spotswood, Helmetta and East Brunswick the pantry serves monthly, roughly 42 percent are white, 34 percent are African American, 18 percent are Hispanic, 54 percent are elderly, 23 percent are disabled and 68 percent are women with children.
Ms. Leibowitz said that while she didn’t have exact figures, the numbers are similar for Monroe’s Food Pantry which primarily serves just Monroe and Jamesburg residents with a slightly higher percentage of seniors, due to the prevalence of retirement communities in the township.
Both women took pains during the presentation to dispel what Ms. Schneider-Baker described as "that welfare, leeching off the system-type person myth," noting that many of those who use the two pantries (which are run entirely by volunteers) also work at them.
"For most people who ask, it’s because they really have a need," Ms. Leibowitz said.
The presentation piqued the interest of league members, who asked questions ranging from whether either pantry asked for proof of U.S. Citizenship or legal residency (neither does) to how much support each gets from the state and federal government.
"Not much, really," Ms. Schneider-Baker said in response to the latter question. "There is a line item in the state budget for groups like ours, but kind of like a line item in our personal budgets, that money can always be used for something else and it usually is. I’ve never gotten any."
Groups like the Middlesex County Food Organization and Outreach Distribution Services offer area pantries some assistance to the tune of about 10 bags of groceries a month, Ms. Schneider-Baker said but for the most part, they’re on their own.
Ms. Leibowitz explained that the Monroe pantry is supported largely by the efforts of the Rossmoor Kiwanis (whose members handle the collection and sorting of the pantry’s commodities) and through the Senior Center’s Pennies Fund.
Similarly, most of the funding and supplies for the Deacons’ Cupboard comes from private groups, Ms. Schneider-Baker said, including food drives from area schools and groups like the Boy Scouts.
Other fundraising efforts for the pantry include those like an upcoming dance and dinner sponsored by the Jamesburg Democratic Club, in conjunction with Police Benevolent Association Local 166 and the St. James Chapter of the Knights of Columbus. Proceeds from the sale of tickets ($30 each) for the May 19 event, which will run from 7 to 11 p.m., will benefit the Deacons’ Cupboard.
League co-President Ruth Banks said the lack of state and federal assistance for organizations like the two pantries and ways to address that lack would be one area of focus for the league’s study, which will be officially presented at the group’s annual reorganization meeting June 26.
For more information on the Monroe Township Food Pantry, including how and what to donate, contact the Office on Aging at (732) 521-6111. For more information on the Deacons’ Cupboard, contact the Jamesburg Presbyterian Church at (732) 521-6111.
Tickets to the May 19 Deacon’s Food Pantry Dance can be obtained by calling Debbie Jennings at (732) 605-0030.