Food Charity Expands Delivery Service To Ridgewood Seniors

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Village seniors are receiving help from a nonprofit that brings food to those in need.

Healing Meals not only provides fresh, nutritious food to area children, the program brings food to senior citizens at Ridgecrest Senior Housing and S.H.A.R.E. Independent Living for Active Seniors.

"Access to healthy food is important at all ages, including seniors who have unique nutritional needs and challenges from health conditions to limited functional abilities that need to be considered, that’s why we are collaborating with Ridgecrest and S.H.A.R.E to provide the nutrition they need,” said Stacey Antine, director of the HealthBarn Foundation.

The program already gives food to children who are undergoing treatment for cancer, serious blood disorders and sickle cell anemia at Hackensack University Medical Center and St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson.

Recipes from the Appetite for Life cookbook for kids are prepared by volunteers from the Bergen County Academies' Healing Meals Club using fresh, natural and organic food from Whole Foods Market and b.good restaurant in Ridgewood.

The HealthBarn Foundation runs the program.

"Helping thousands of families eat healthy and personally dealing with cancer in my family, I knew the only way to help children get good nutrition during this stressful time of treatment was to prepare meals and make them readily available for families,” Antine said.

Meals are labeled with nutritional information, heating instructions and an expiration date.

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