The Flemington Area Food Pantry’s
Response to the Pandemic
We must continue to feed our neighbors in need. This is not a work-at-home option. There is a growing number of neighbors in need, and the growth is projected to exponentially increase each week for the foreseeable future. Our ability to access food has also become more challenging with supply chains completely disrupted. At the same time, we MUST protect our staff and volunteers from Corona-19. So what to do?
In just two weeks, we instituted an overhaul in the way we do business…so that we could continue to do business. The Pantry went to a drive-up option so that we could limit people in the building to just volunteers and staff. Where before the pandemic, Pantry clients would come in to the comfortable Pantry waiting room twice a month and select the food and personal care items they need, they now wait in their cars or under shelter outside the building. When the client’s turn comes, a volunteer runner takes their order and hands it off to a volunteer inside the building. The grocery items are packed in boxes and brought out to the client by another volunteer. Able-bodied clients then load their own groceries and leave the cart to be sanitized before the next use. This revised process permits the Pantry volunteers to comply with social distancing rules, and helps keep both the volunteers and clients reasonably safe from the possibility of being infected.
We handled the increase in new clients just like we always do – we registered their families (by phone), welcomed them to our family, and provided them with food and personal care items to help them through this crisis. Many, if not all of them, never expected to be in this situation. As they always do, our volunteers greeted them with warmth, sensitivity, and generosity without an ounce of judgment.
When we couldn’t access protein through our normal channels, we got creative. We went to restaurant supply stores (at extra cost) and gratefully accepted donations from local restaurants who could not use their existing stock. We won’t forget those restaurants when they open up again!
Recognizing that our families now had kids at home looking for lunch, and often breakfast, that they would normally receive at school we started up our summer student bonus pack program – three months early. A plea went out to the community and they responded. Where there were gaps in things like peanut butter, we dipped into our supply or purchased more.
As for our volunteers, we realized the lengths that we had to go to in order to protect them, as they are our lifeblood. We provided gloves and extra cleaning supplies, sanitized carts at each use, offered masks, limited the number of volunteers per shift to six, and mandated social distancing. We hired a temporary Outreach Coordinator to manage the oversight of shifts and re-stocking each afternoon. This allowed us to limit the number of afternoon volunteers to two. It also allowed our Executive Director, Jeannine Gorman, to remain in her office to protect her against infection and ensure that the remarkable leadership of the Pantry during this crisis was unaffected.
These extraordinary measures have so far been effective in protecting our dedicated volunteers and allowing us to continue to provide groceries to Hunterdon County residents who are in need.
If you or someone you know in Hunterdon is having difficulty putting food on the table during this pandemic, we’re here to help.