PASCACK VALLEY—Scout troops, school groups, businesses, service organizations, families and thoughtful individuals heeded the call this year and showed up laden with frozen turkeys, Thanksgiving table trimmings, and supermarket gift cards.
It’s fair to say the Helping Hand Food Pantry Turkey Drive’s receiving tarp spilled over with goodness.
The drive, held Saturday, Nov. 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hillsdale United Methodist Church, which hosts the pantry as a mission, kept an eager crew bustling. A procession of cars and trucks pulled up, donations amassed, and a small, well-oiled army of helpers stocked the pantry’s storerooms in the church basement.
We arrived amid a drop-off by Jessie F. George Elementary School of Washington Township, (25 turkeys already downstairs), Westwood UNICO, Inserra Supermarkets, Elks Lodge of Paramus, and Northern New Jersey Girl Scout Troop 95792 (10th grade, led by Wendy Diaz. Members represented PVHS, Bergen County Academies, and Holdrum Middle School).
A representative of newly re-elected Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) was on the scene, then on her way to other appearances in the district. (Gottheimer was here in 2019, winging turkeys out of SUVs like a pro.)
It’s all in a day’s work for the food pantry, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The nonprofit is staffed by dedicated volunteers and relies on private donations, grocery stores, fundraisers, food drives, and grants to serve those in need. It says it serves approximately 1,252 neighbors every month, including senior citizens, the disabled, active military members, and veterans.
The pantry serves community members from the towns of Emerson, Hillsdale, Oradell, Montvale, River Vale, Washington Township, Westwood, and Woodcliff Lake.
And of course Helping Hand is in solid company in the Pascack Valley. At a glance, the Tri-Boro Food Pantry, based at Pascack Reformed Church in Park Ridge, held a food drive of its own last week, with distribution on Sunday.
It posted, “Thank you to all our volunteers, you make it all look so easy. We all know, feeding 140 families in two hours [of a later estimated 194 families], takes weeks of planning. Thank you to the Park Ridge Knights of Columbus at OLM for all the new coats. Many of our little ones in our communities, will be warmer this winter.”
Montvale Landscaping had its third fish-and-chips fundraiser, all proceeds going to the Tri-Boro Food Pantry. The pantry said, “We raised $2,150 this fall and Montvale Landscaping matched it again, or a total of $4,300.”
And two teams of Montvale moms in scrimmage were raising donations for Tri-Boro Food Pantry at their Black Friday flag football game on the Fieldstone Middle School soccer field.
At the same time, the Hillsdale Lady Hawks were playing Oradell at PVHS in part for Helping Hand Food Pantry, and the Emerson Mamaliers were taking on the Ramsey TDs at Emerson Jr./Sr. High School in part for Emerson Bible Church Food Pantry.
On Nov. 20, Chief Michael R. Pontillo and the members of the Westwood Police Department posted a glowing note praising Coach Jimmy Wagner of Pascack Boxing School “for his support of the community, dedication to the service of others and his friendship. This weekend, Coach Wagner fundraised $2,500, giving a donation to Saint Andrew’s parish, and using the rest to purchase and donate 80 Thanksgiving turkeys to those in need in Westwood.”
They said “department members, Coach Jimmy, and Chris Perfetto of North Valley Handyman Services distributed these turkeys to various houses of worship and residents within the community.”
Helping Hand sets the table
Helping Hand Food Pantry Turkey Drive coordinator Mark Loblanco told Pascack Press the drive’s turkeys will be given out for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“This turkey drive always kicks off the holiday season. It’s so amazing to see a community come together with donations of not just turkeys but bags of food and gift cards. The youth of the community working in unison with adults is wonderful to watch. The many volunteers make this turkey drive a success. It is that simple,” he says.
Loblanco adds, “Our client list has been steadily increasing while our food donations have been decreasing” and notes donations have been harder to come by.
“We used to get 800 turkeys. Well, we don’t get that much anymore but it’s the community coming together, especially during this time. I think it’s phenomenal,” he says.
He tells us the morning was going exceedingly well, with 150 turkeys already received. “It’s going early and often! We started at 10 [a.m.] and I had 15 down on the tarp before 10 o’clock. Every year it’s amazing what the turnout brings.”
Helping Hand Food Pantry trustee and founder Lois Kohan adds, “We share. We have to have a certain number for our regular clients. But other organizations such as Zion Lutheran Church in Westwood, St. John’s in Hillsdale, Mount Zion in Westwood — they all do outreach for this as well.”
She says, “We can’t be everything to everybody, but what we can do is share. That’s the theme: sharing and giving and being thankful for what we have.”
Asked whether she might have imagined this milestone 30 years ago, she says, “No, never, never. It started small. We used to play ‘ring and run’ so as to not embarrass anybody [receiving food].”
She explains, “I’m a [public health] nurse. The school nurses would tell us who in the community was in need; 30 years ago a Boy Scout came to my office at the Board of Health and asked if I had any ideas what he could do for his Eagle Scout project. I said, ‘How about a food drive,’ because we had a lot of needy people in the community.”
The scout and his troop held a food drive. “And we had so much food they had it piled in our hall. My welfare director [Westwood’s welfare and social services director] managed the operation for the following six years, and I invited families to come down and help themselves to that food, and all they said to was wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a place where we could get a little assistance,” says Kohan.
She steps out of the way of three volunteers carrying boxes of food donations. “And the rest is history. I wrote letters to everyone in our community, saying, ‘Do you have a space a food pantry?’ And this church came forth, and they gave us this space.”
She says, “The good Lord directed us to do this. And we fought for it.”
Downstairs, where Denise Pallotta is supervising operations in what looks like a small supermarket, Loblanco says the relative falloff in donations is due to “price increases on food and other household items. People are finding it hard to donate when they need first to take care of their own family.”
And Kohen and Loblanco agree one thing going consistently strong is the volunteer force. More are welcome in collecting the turkeys and other donations, though this year, in deference to the Covid-19 pandemic, the work was entrusted to a select group of seasoned turkey drive helpers.
Loblanco says, “We have a great board of trustees but the volunteers are the motor that keeps the train rolling on the tracks. We can always use more volunteers. Many hands make light work.”
Back upstairs — past a bulletin board pinned well with newspaper clippings trumpeting food pantry milestones — board members are pitching in as well. The common note: Our volunteers are amazing. We couldn’t do it without them.