Township Council can lead by making fund donation.
It’s time for the Township Council to put its money where the township’s neediest mouths come for help.
Donations to the township’s Human Intervention Trust Fund, which is administered by the Department of Social Services and is used to assist residents in economic straits in paying their rent and utilities, are well behind last year’s pace.
As of Monday, a total of $5,400 had been collected for 2006 compared with the more than $25,000 raised for 2005. That leaves the fund about $20,000 short and that assumes that there will not be an increase in the number of people seeking help.
That’s not realistic, though, given the sharp increase in heating costs projected for the coming winter.
The fund generally relies on donations from local businesses and residents, but several factors appear to have dammed those revenue streams. Fuel costs are significantly higher than last year and the prices of other goods are on the rise, leaving less money in residents’ pockets for charitable efforts. In addition, some of the money that otherwise might have made its way to local efforts is being diverted to the Gulf Coast region, as residents attempt to help those suffering from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This is not an implied criticism. The people in New Orleans and in towns like D’Iberville, Miss., are in desperate need and deserve the money that is coming their way. The Post, for example, is part of a township-wide effort to help the folks in D’Iberville rebuild their city.
But the people who live in South Brunswick need our assistance, too. That’s why the Post and its parent company, The Princeton Packet, have adopted a family through the township’s holiday program, and why we take every opportunity to remind residents to collect food and donate cash to the various programs run by Social Services.
Relying on residents and businesses, however, can be dicey, as the confluence of circumstances this year proves.
So we are asking the Township Council to set an example for the rest of the township and find some money for the trust fund. As we said, $20,000 is needed just to bring the fund up to last year’s total. The council could provide half $10,000 as part of a township-led campaign to boost the fund to $30,000 by the end of the year. After all, it regularly provides money to local groups undertaking special projects, as it did when it gave the high school marching band $7,500 for its upcoming trip to Indianapolis for the Grand Nationals.
On a related note, the township Food Pantry could use supermarket gift cards to be included in Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets provided to needy families. The cards would be used to buy turkeys and hams and any other needed food items.
And the various Boy Scout troops in town are conducting their annual food drive beginning Saturday. They will be dropping bags off at each house in the township and will be back on Nov. 12 to collect the food, so help out if you can.
To donate to the trust fund, mail checks payable to the Human Intervention Trust Fund to P.O. Box 190, Municipal Complex, Monmouth Junction, N.J. 08852.
Supermarket gift cards can be mailed to the same address or dropped off at the township Food Pantry. Pantry offices are located in the Community Center in Woodlot Park on New Road, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.