UPDATED Hoboken Shelter Needs Toilet Paper, Food Amid Coronavirus

HOBOKEN, NJ — With household supplies limited during the coronavirus crisis — and the city's homeless shelter practicing social distancing among its volunteers and guests — they're in need of items to be delivered or dropped off, ranging from sandwiches to socks to toilet paper.

Besides the shelter, at Third and Bloomfield streets, the city has also set up a way to donate food virtually to needy residents, here and through a wish list here.

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A recent letter from the shelter said:

"We have implemented additional precautionary changes to our soup kitchen services, primarily with social distancing during meals service. With this new format, we started a staggered service of our simplified plated meals. This has created a staffing burden, so we really could use your help with donations of sandwiches or sliced bread & cold cuts in order to continue serving over 500 meals daily."

Among the items the shelter has asked for:

<blockquote>

1. Items for sandwiches—sliced bread, sliced cheese, cold cuts, canned tuna fish, mayonnaise, Ziplock Baggies or tinfoil.

2. Coffee, coffee, coffee—our guests really love their Cup O’ Joe especially with sugar and milk!

3. Soap and other hygiene Items

4. Towels and washcloths for showers

5. Laundry detergent

6. Dish detergent

7. Lysol/Clorox wipes & cleaning supplies to help continue to sanitize the shelter.

8. Hand sanitizers—individual sizes & bulk sizes

9. Garbage bags—any size, but especially 55 Gallons.

10. Toilet paper—TP is always Top Priority!

11. Socks and underpants are appreciated by the guests.

Amazon wish list link: http://a.co/9Vucyn1

</blockquote>

The shelter wrote: "It only costs $2 per meal, so every little bit really helps! Please sponsor dinner in our soup kitchen with a donation of $300. (You can mail donations to Jaclyn’s attention—Thanks!) To donate, you can use our website: https://hobokenshelter.org/donating-to-the-shelter/, you can donate via PayPal, or you can donate via text: text GIVE to 201-733-4196.

"If you want to volunteer, we trust you to evaluate your own risks and comfort level, and welcome you to help make sandwiches from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily in our kitchen. No large groups and only 1-2 people at a time."

You can follow the shelter on social media here:

• facebook.com/HobokenShelter
• @hoboken_shelter
• @hobokenshelter

A representative of the shelter said last week, "They provide for 50 people nightly, serve 500 meals daily and host 1,000 showers weekly and are running low on essential items such as toilet paper, soap, body soap, sanitizers, bleach,cleaning solutions and canned food. Groups volunteer daily whom may not show up, so the canned food is important."

The Amazon wish list is also here.

You can also ship an order directly to the shelter at 300 Bloomfield St., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Call the shelter with any questions, 201-656-5069.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

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