ALJ Students Collect For Clark Food Pantry

On Friday, March 18th, the ALJ Key Club along with the Junior Class ran a “Stop the Clock” for hunger day. Teachers encouraged students to bring in cans of food and non-perishable items. The non-perishable goods were brought to the Board of Health Office at the Clark Municipal Building where they will be distributed to local food banks in the Clark/Garwood area. Students, Peter Buckley, John Ferrentino, Robby Bock and Scott Cheshul were instrumental in collecting the food from the classes.

Encouraged by the success of the previous Stop the Clock, which raised funds for Children's Specialized Hospital, Key Club members decided to try something different. The plan was to ask each student in every class to donate just two cans or non-perishable items. As incentives, many teachers offered homework passes, extra credit or time off the class period in exchange for food donations. The school goal was to collect 1,000 cans. The collection was extremely successful as the students far exceeded the goal with a total of 3,215 items collected.

According to Key Club Co-Vice President, John Ferrintino, more classes and teachers participated than ever before. It took five or six car loads to transport the food across the street to the Clark Municipal Building. Ferrentino said, “It was a big job but we had a lot of great help. We couldn't have done it without the help of Key Club Advisor, Sharon Mills and Junior Class Advisor, Anne Marciano, who helped coordinate everything."

In January 2011, St. John the Apostle in conjunction with the Clark Health Department began operating a satellite food distribution center at Brewer Municipal Building. According to Clark Health Officer, Nancy Raymond, the food bank is open the 3rd Tuesday of each month from 12 - 2pm in the Clark Recreation cafeteria at 432 Westfield Ave. Anyone with proof of New Jersey residency is eligible to receive food which includes two bags of groceries and one bag of perishable items.  Raymond said that there has been an increase in participants from only four in January to 42 in March. She said that donations are gladly accepted from any person or organization.

Each month the donations have a suggested theme. In January the theme was baby food; February, soup and salad; March, general groceries and in April donations of spring cleaning supplies are requested. The monthly theme can be found on the township website www.ourclark.com  Donations may be dropped off Monday-Friday at the Clark Municipal Building, Room 18 between 8:30am and 3:00pm. Anyone with questions may contact Nancy Raymond at (732) 428-8405.

The St. John’s/Clark food bank operates as a supplement to the NJ State Food Program which also provides food for distribution. Food is distributed by volunteers from St. John the Apostle. Anyone interested in volunteering to pack or distribute bags can call Maryann at (732) 388-1216.