Hunterdon Co. Employees Join Foodstock Campaign

County Employees recently joined a statewide effort called ‘Foodstock Week,’ July 7th-12th, to collect 411 pounds of non-perishable food items for the Flemington Food Pantry to assist with the needs of the less fortunate community members who are struggling to put food on their tables, Freeholder Board Director Suzanne Lagay announced at the July 16th meeting.

Foodstock began in 2010 with the mission to ‘facilitate the movement of food from those who have been abundantly blessed to those who are in need, and to inspire future generations to do the same.’ Hunterdon County joined the initiative to help Foodstock reach a goal of collecting 120,000 pounds of food this year.

Freeholder Susan Soloway, Human Services liaison for the Board in supporting the effort, said, “There are people in our county who struggle to have the most basic needs filled. Non-perishable foods, self-care items, pet foods and even laundry soap or cleaning products, things that most people assume everyone has access to, are acceptable donations. Recognizing this need is what encouraged all of our county employees to participate and fill enough bags to donate more than four hundred pounds to the local Flemington Food Pantry.”

“During the year, there are food drives in school and communities, especially around Thanksgiving and the holidays. Food pantries have the hardest time stocking their shelves in the summer because school is out and that is when they need food donations the most,” said Robert Swisher, founder of the Freehold-based non-profit Foodstock organization.

Foodstock Week is playing off of Woodstock which occurred in July, 1969.

More than fifty municipalities participated in Foodstock Week and donations are accepted year-round, not just during planned events. For more information, please visit the Foodstock website, http://foodstocknj.org/ to subscribe to their mailing list and to learn more about how you can help in your community.