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SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Kids help with food donations

By Nicole Cosentino, Special Writer
   Times are hard for everyone these days, and the South Brunswick Food Pantry needs all the help it can get.
   With the levels so low, two local girls, Justice Sensakovic and Katie Hallihan, both from Monmouth Junction, decided to take action.
   ”Our food pantry is lower than normal. We had (to feed) a record number of people for the month of July,” food pantry director LouAnne Wolf said Tuesday. “We had 72 families. I’ve been here 20 years and I’ve never had that many people in one month.”
   The monthly average, according to Ms. Wolf, is 55 to 60 families, and that 10 of the 72 families had not been to the food pantry before.
   Justice and Katie, who are neighbors, raised money and donations for the food pantry and brought them in on their own, according to Ms. Wolf.
   ”Any time you get young children to (help) it’s fantastic,” Ms. Wolf said. “They came and saw what the food pantry is. I think when young children see what the need for food is, it sits with them, and would carry on through their lives.”
   Ms. Wolf said the food pantry is looking for donations and will have several large food drives in August.
   ”We’re very low on pasta, coffee, and snack food,” Ms. Wolf said. “We’re trying to get low sugar (content) items because we have a lot of diabetics.”
   The food pantry is also accepting donations of complete book bags for school.
   ”If anyone’s willing to put together a book bag filled with supplies and make it non-gender specific, that would be great,” Ms. Wolf said.
   Donations can be dropped off at the food pantry’s location in the South Brunswick Municipal Building on Route 522 in Monmouth Junction Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.