‘What can you say about a ‘crisis’ that has gone on for 28 years? Is it a crisis — or just the way we do things in this country?’
By Michael Redmond Lifestyle Editor
Times are tough, and there’s little reason to expect, as of this writing, that they will improve dramatically anytime soon. People are worried about their homes, their retirement funds, their investments, their jobs. Like the rest of his colleagues, the Reverend Jarrett Kerbel, the new executive director of The Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton, has concerns, too. In his case, the issues are even more basic, like food on the table and heating oil in the fuel tank.
“We’re incredibly concerned right now, as winter comes up, about utilities, about heating oil. The price of oil is way up, around 36 percent, and we’re one of the few agencies that provides fuel oil assistance,” says Mr. Kerbel, who arrived back in Mercer County right in time, it appears, for the perfect storm.
A key link in the chain of nonprofit service agencies that seeks to protect Mercer’s poor against hunger and homelessness, Crisis Ministry was founded 28 years ago by Trinity Episcopal Church and Nassau Presbyterian Church. In its early years, the agency was led by Mr. Kerbel’s mother, the Reverend Carol Kerbel, and the young Jarrett, then living in Hillsborough, worked there as a volunteer.
“I spent a lot of time in this church basement,” he says, looking around the agency’s quarters at Nassau church, where it runs a food pantry. Crisis Ministry’s headquarters is on E. Hanover Street in Trenton, where it runs a supermarket-style food store.
“I was here when this ministry started. Think about that,” Mr. Kerbel says.
“What can you say about a ‘crisis’ that has gone on for 28 years? Is it a crisis — or just the way we do things in this country? The facts are, not every one will be employed, not everyone will be employed well enough to make a living wage, and we’re not even talking about the under-employed and the unemployable. What is our commitment to these people? Right now, our commitment is to leave them living in poverty.”
Those are some tough words from a seemingly mild-mannered fellow, and he backs up a little, rhetorically, concerned that he might be taken for a wild-eyed scold. But facts are facts. Mercer is one of the most affluent counties in one of the most affluent states. The cost of living here is very high.
“We spend a lot of time educating people,” Mr. Kerbel says. “Monthly public assistance is $140. Monthly food stamps is $140. The only thing ‘welfare reform’ succeeded in doing is getting the topic of poverty off the table.”
Formerly rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Park Ridge, Ill., a prosperous suburb of Chicago (and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s home town), Mr. Kerbel came back East when his wife, the Reverend Dr. Alison L. Boden, was named dean of religious life at Princeton University. Much of Mr. Kerbel’s work as a Chicago-area pastor had been in social justice issues, including a leadership position in the Chicago Interfaith Committee for Workers Issues.
Back home again, “I was looking for my next call (to ministry). I realized I’d spent a lot of time in my ministry on urban issues. So it wasn’t that big a leap to an agency serving the most vulnerable,” he says.
The picture isn’t unrelievedly grim.
“We’ve experienced a lot of generosity in Mercer since I arrived. There’s a lot of good people doing good work, that has to be affirmed — people who are pouring their hearts out against long odds,” Mr. Kerbel says.
“We’re working very well together with Catholic Charities, the Mount Carmel Guild, HomeFront, Mercer Street Friends, and Isles, to coordinate services. The problems are what they are — concentrated poverty in Trenton, unequal distribution of affordable housing, a lack of living-wage jobs. I’m looking forward to how the faith communities in Mercer are going to be the leaders on affordable housing and adequate nutrition for low-income people. This is the role we should be playing.”
More numbers: In September Crisis Ministry served approximately 1,400 households with its food program and fielded approximately 250 requests for utilities assistance and 100 requests for back rent assistance or security deposit assistance. This includes applications at its Princeton location, where “we’re seeing a rapid increase (in cases), about 60 percent, and we would really like people to know that.” Both offices are “super-busy.”
Coming up are Christmas and Chanukah, “the season of light,and we’re thinking of a campaign in that regard. Keep the lights on. Keep the homes heated,” he says.
Mr. Kerbel and his wife have two children, Martha and Timothy. The family lives in Hopewell.
The Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton is as dependent on its 50 volunteers as on donations of cash, goods and services. To offer support to the ministry, which operates independently of its founding churches and has no sectarian impediments, and to learn more, visit www.thecrisisministry.org.
Benefit recital: On Sunday at 3 p.m., soprano Joan Waite “travels the world in song” to benefit The Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Princeton, located at 50 Cherry Hill Road. Tickets are $25. For more information, call 609-655-2507.

