Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Barbara Slamp wears many hats as director of the Barnegat Emergency Food Pantry.

She's been a successful solicitor, convincing the township to donate new refrigerators to outfit the pool-blue cinderblock building tucked away off the municipal parking lot on North Main Street.

She's a team leader, corralling volunteers from around Barnegat and beyond to help staff the pantry and transport food. 

And three days a week, when the pantry opens its doors to residents in need, she's a kind neighbor there to help and listen. 

"Sometimes I'm a mother confessor," Slamp laughed.

Slamp got involved with the pantry more than 10 years ago, she said, when its founder James Nelson, her neighbor in Pheasant Run, asked her if she wanted to volunteer.

Nelson had been running the pantry for more than a decade himself, and when he moved to Florida, Slamp found herself with a lot more responsibility.

"He said ‘Here’s the keys, you’re it,'" she said.

Since then, the retiree has been leading a small team of volunteers who help Barnegat residents get the food they need to make ends meet from month to month. The pantry is one of 35 centers that make up the Ocean County Hunger Relief network, headquartered in Toms River.

County Social Services directs people to Hunger Relief, Slamp said, which in turn notifies her that an individual or family will be dropping by to pick up their month’s quota of canned goods, pasta, bread, meat and more.

The number of clients who visit the pantry varies from week to week and month to month, Slamp said, but numbers were high around the holidays and have stayed that way.

Barnegat Township Committeeman Al Bille, who is now serving as the liaison between Committee and pantry, said as many as 200 people a month take home food.

"This is the busiest it’s ever been," said longtime volunteer Jake Taylor, who brings leftover bread from area grocery stores to the pantry every weekend.

"We get families; I see guys who have been laid off," he said. "There’s a big need."

And Taylor said Slamp is the one who gets the job done. "We got lucky when we got her," he said.

And the pantry offers more than meal makings. The building also houses a thrift shop full of racks of clothing, from sweaters to bathrobes to children’s snow pants, plus shoes, household goods and more. Slamp keeps things orderly and inviting: clothes are in neatly folded, carefully labeled stacks; a wall of plush stuffed animals near the door makes for a welcoming entrance for kids.

The whole operation is truly a community effort, Slamp said. Money donations, including a steady stream of generous checks from Mirage residents, help keep the shelves stocked, as do regular food drives by Barnegat’s Post Office and local Boy Scouts.

And the all-volunteer staff is there three days a week to greet clients and keep things running.

Libby Hammond was one of four women who spent part of Monday packing a shipment of meat from the local A&P into one of the small army of refrigerators to await pickup. Her connection to the pantry is a personal one, she said.

She first walked through the door last year as a client. Her husband had passed away a few years before.

"I finally came here asking for help," Hammond said. Before long she asked what she could do to return the favor. "I’ve been here ever since," she said.

"You’re just helping people get through another day of life," said Slamp. "And life’s not the easiest thing to get through these days."

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, which is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

Want to offer 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.