BAYONNE Food Bank

Filling a need in trying times

By Diana Schwaeble

Photos courtesy of the Bayonne Food Bank

During good times, many people think about how they’ll spend their vacations, or they look forward to spending holidays with loved ones. The very nature of good times has been upended by the far-reaching effects of the pandemic. Many people struggle on a daily basis, whether from the stress of working from home, recent layoffs, job insecurities, or the day-to-day struggles of paying bills. During tough times, people worry about feeding their families, said Bayonne Business Administrator Melissa Mathews.

“As the pandemic started happening, we started to see a really big need,” said Melissa, noting that the mayor’s office was getting calls from people who wanted to donate food. When the pandemic hit and businesses and services were shut down or had limited resources, a number of entities sprang into action.

A Team Effort

In early April, Bayonne City Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski was already in the process of starting a food bank working with the Bayonne Economic Opportunity Foundation. In addition to Sharon’s work, various groups coalesced to provide food to those in need.

“We partnered with Table to Table, and we partnered with the Community Food Bank of New Jersey,” Melissa said

Particularly over the holidays we are really trying to supplement people’s diets and their food needs.”

Food distribution takes place once a week at 16th Street Park, lower level. In addition to the central distribution spot, every Thursday 100 to 200 bags of groceries go out for private home delivery. During the pandemic, the food bank was allowed to reallocate resources from the city. Public Works guys helped with food distribution.

The food bank had lots of calls from citizens who wanted to help, but with strict social distancing guidelines, the group couldn’t accept volunteers.

Things have gotten a little better. Now, the city accepts volunteers, mostly for bagging. “If people want to volunteer, we ask them to go down to 16th Street when we are distributing,” Melissa said, noting that Sharon AsheNadrowski is there. “She is the one to speak with, or they can contact us on Facebook. We’ve worked with Bayonne High School. The students are doing it for the hours even though the hours aren’t required this year, which is really lovely.”

A Phone Call Away

Melissa would love to see the food bank in a permanent location. She sees it as a crisis outreach for people.

“Right now it’s a pandemic, but it could be something else,” she said. “Every community needs something like this. And not just a soup kitchen. We need a place where parents who may not always be comfortable having to seek assistance can go. So I would like to have a location longterm where people can call.”

Currently, anyone seeking help can call the mayor’s office. Melissa said she’s personally bought formula for families. If someone calls the office in true crisis, multiple people in city hall move to help. “If there is an immediate need where somebody doesn’t have food, we provide that,” Melissa said. “Whether we have it or not here at city hall, we figure it out. It’s been really, really nice to see everybody pulling together and trying to make this work. It’s truly a good thing to know that when your back is to the wall, there are people looking out for each other who will keep everything together.”—BLP Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski and Raine Cuseglio