Cranbury Post office food drive a success
By: Jessica Beym
Postal workers in Cranbury carried more than just the mail last weekend.
In addition to delivering mail along their daily routes, 13 employees at the Cranbury Post Office also spent Saturday collecting food from the doorsteps of the community, bringing in about 5,000 pounds of nonperishable goods that will help feed the area needy.
The nationwide annual food drive, which is sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service, is a way to replenish the shelves of local food pantries such as Skeet’s Pantry of the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
Bill Marino, the Cranbury Post Office representative for NALC, said that in the 14 years of the food drive, every year the community’s generosity increases. This year’s collection brought in 1,000 more pounds than the previous food drive, he said.
Peter Wise, the director of TASK, which serves more than 3,300 free meals per week at two locations in Trenton, said that the help from the collection comes at a time when nonprofit organizations like TASK are struggling from donor fatigue. Mr. Wise said many people tend to donate money and food during the holidays, but donations slow down during the warmer months.
"People are hungry all year round, every day of the year," Mr. Wise said. "It’s important to keep people aware of the needs that exist all around us. In the summer, those needs increase because I have kids coming to the kitchen because they’re not in school receiving school lunches."
Mr. Wise said that in the 20 years he has worked at the soup kitchen, the number of people suffering from hunger has steadily increased. But because TASK receives little money from the government, the kitchen depends on money and food donations from the public, Mr. Wise said. He said Cranbury has always been generous to TASK through food drives such as this.
On Wednesday, Mr. Wise made a second trip to the kitchen in Trenton to drop off a carload full of the donated food. The shelves in Skeet’s Pantry were also fully stocked with cans of vegetables, canned meats, pastas, peanut butter, boxes of rice, or jars of sauce, Mr. Wise said. Each month, Skeet’s Pantry serves about 30 families from surrounding towns who come to the pantry for two bags of groceries. Like TASK, Skeet’s Pantry also relies on donations to stock the shelves.
During previous drives, the postal workers collected bags mostly from the village neighborhoods, Mr. Marino said. But this year, they also reached out to the rural areas in town, which Mr. Marino said was very successful.
"Everybody participates," Mr. Marino said. "The public always responds well because it goes to a good cause."
On May 10, the postal workers sent out letters along seven city routes and five rural routes in Cranbury to let residents know about the food drive. The letters provided instructions on what to donate and where to place it for pickup. On Saturday, they collected bags of food from the residents’ steps, loaded them into the trucks and dropped everything off at Fellowship Hall of the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury.
"We did pretty good," said Mr. Marino, who has headed up the annual drive since it began 14 years ago. "It’s a little bit more work, but it’s not too bad. On the city riding routes (through the village) you get a lot. Then you have to come back and unload, but you try to squeeze as many bags into the truck as you can."
Mr. Wise said the drive wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of the community and the hard work of the postal workers.
"We’re particularly grateful of this initiative," Mr. Wise said. "I’m so impressed with the mail carriers doing this because they have enough to do carrying the mail. Then, to launch this food drive canned goods are heavy."
To find out about ways to volunteer or donate to TASK, call (609) 695-5456 or visit the Web site at www.trentonsoupkitchen.org. To donate or volunteer at Skeet’s Food Pantry at 22 S. Main St., call (609) 395-0897.