Food Pantry To Use Grant Money for Storage Trailer

As the economy continues to sputter, there’s one place in town that’s seeing more people come through the door than ever: the Barnegat Emergency Food Pantry.

And while the volunteers who run the downtown food bank would be happy to see demand for their services slack off, they’re also glad that a major gift has helped make a new expansion possible.

In June, the Barnegat pantry and six other area food banks each received $10,000 from the Taste of Southern Ocean Hunger Relief Dinner, a fundraiser for local food banks organized annually by the Southern Ocean Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Ocean County Community Foundation.

When Barnegat pantry director Barbara Slamp got word of the donation, it was a happy shock. “I almost fell of my chair,” she said. 

An oversized print of the check now hangs in Slamp’s office, and she and the pantry’s other volunteers are making plans with the township for both some cosmetic improvements around the building, which sits on the downtown municipal lot near the corner of Bay Avenue and Route 9, and a much-needed addition: A storage trailer.

The pantry houses a thrift shop – neat, organized and filled with racks of gently used clothing and shelves of household items – which serves both as a resource for pantry clients in need of inexpensive items and a fundraising tool to keep the pantry in the black, since anyone is welcome to shop there.

But space is at a premium in the small building, and keeping the tiny storage closet that must hold all their overflow organized is a daunting task that takes a lot of time, Slamp said.

“We could really use other storage,” she said, and a trailer – similar in size to those used as school classrooms or construction site offices – would fit the bill, freeing up space and making volunteers’ jobs easier. The township is helping them search for one, she said.

In addition, said township administrator David Breeden, the public works department is looking at some other improvements: replacing the chain link fence that surrounds the building with a white vinyl fence, sealing cracked asphalt and doing some general cleanup.

It’s an unfortunate reality that business at the food pantry is growing, “so they must have the facility to handle the increased demand,” he said. And as businesses owners invest making the downtown an attractive place, the pantry’s appearance should also be spruced up, he said.

Slamp is looking forward to the improvements, but for her, it comes down to helping the people who count on the pantry and its volunteers week after week. She’ll wake up in the middle of the night thinking about them, she said.

“You know they’re struggling,” she said. “They have a family and they’re in need of food.”

Want to help? Send money donations to the Barnegat Emergency Food Pantry, P.O. Box 816, Barnegat, NJ 08005, or call 609-698-7174 during the pantry's regular hours (10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday).

What's needed now: Donations of food are welcome, and Slamp said the pantry is also looking for furniture for its client families. One family currently needs a refrigerator, she said.

Need help? Call the Ocean County Board of Social Services at 732-349-1500 for information on how to become a client at the pantry.