By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — A single donation given this week to a local food pantry will provide it financial security for the next six months, its executive director said.
Princeton-based Church & Dwight, which manufactures Arm & Hammer products, handed Rise’s food pantry a $50,000 check Tuesday, from a total of $500,000 the company has earmarked for food banks throughout the state.
Rise Executive Director Leslie Koppel said the donation amounts to about half the organization’s typical annual budget, and the largest single donation the non-profit charity group has ever received.
”It’s made our year,” Ms. Koppel said. “Fifty-thousand dollars is huge for us.”
Rise, based in Hightstown, runs a food pantry and also operates summer camps and assistance programs for low-income families in the East Windsor and Cranbury areas. Though the donation was specifically delegated to the pantry, Ms. Koppel said the money would free up the group’s general fund, which could now be used to better support the rest of its various programs.
In other words, those using the group’s case managers and camps don’t need to worry about any program cutbacks this year, since the pantry is solvent, Ms. Koppel said.
Church & Dwight’s Tara Cesaro said the company planned the donation just after Christmas, when the company allocated $500,000 and allowed its Employee Giving Fund to choose local charities it felt deserved the donations. Other donations were given to pantries in New Brunswick, Trenton and Ocean County.
Ms. Cesaro said the company had given to Rise before, and knew it was a legitimate service to the community.
This donation comes just after the kickoff of East Windsor’s food drive. Earlier, Ms. Koppel and East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov told the Herald that the end of the holiday season was usually marked by a decline in the amount of food and monetary donations the pantry received.
Though thrilled with the donation — Ms. Koppel said she was screaming about it on the phone when they first heard they were getting it — Rise still can use all the donations they can get. Pantry coordinator Julia Badulescu said they distribute an average of 600 to 700 bags of groceries a month, and the demands grow with each passing year.
”We were very active last winter,” Ms. Badulescu said.
For more information on donating to Rise, call 443-4464.

