Front Line Appreciation Comes To Cranford, Maplewood, Hoboken

MILLBURN, NJ — A movement started by two North Jersey women, to work with local restaurants to feed emergency responders, has sprouted in towns across New Jersey and across the country, with related groups in Summit, Millburn, Hoboken, Cranford, and Maplewood/South Orange.

Chatham mom Liz Bernich saw residents of her hometown in New York State raising money and helping feed first responders. She posted on a Chatham discussion group on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to help out closer to home. Madison resident Gina McGuire responded.

The Front Line Appreciation Group (FLAG) started its Facebook page on March 21. Since then, groups with the same name have sprouted in places like Detroit and Toronto.

In Summit, Katie Curran Darcy, who graduated from Oak Knoll School there in 1992, was home with her three teenagers and her 10-year-old and looking for says to help. She called Bernich and started her own group in Summit. In the span of 24 hours, FLAG of Summit had raised more than $20,000. Soon they had more than 1,000 members.

FLAG of Summit has been serving the doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers at Overlook Medical Center. Katie and her fellow volunteers use donated funds to purchase hot meals from Summit area restaurants. They then set up a delivery schedule.

“Sometimes these nurses or doctors are assigned to the ICU’s on 12 hour shifts and unable to leave to go to the cafeteria until their long shift's end," Darcy said.

In Millburn, Mayor Jackie Lieberberg recently reminded residents about the Millburn-Short Hills Front Line Appreciation Group's Operation Appreciation each night at 7 p.m. "Stand outside your homes and make some noise to thank the health care workers, first responders and essential workers who have been working so hard to keep our families safe," she wrote.

According to the group's Facebook page, they were preparing on Tuesday to have dinner provided to Mountainside Medical Center and Newark Beth Israel from Khun Thai and Enzzo's. The day before, they partnered with Clemenza's to Clara Maass Hospital.

Cranford also has a FLAG group, found here. On Monday they delivered 100 meals from Sub-Ology to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for lunch.

FLAG of South Orange and Maplewood can be found here. They have raised over $47,000 on a Gofundme page.

"Today, we are sending 40 dinners to University Hospital in Newark and 80 meals to Newark Beth Israel Hospital," they wrote recently. "Tomorrow, we are sending 40 meals to East Orange General Hospital and 80 meals to Newark Beth Israel."

In Hoboken and Jersey City, the group recently conducted a virtual fundraiser with a kids' hour, virtual dance party, and virtual auction, hosted in part by the local lifestyle and news blog HobokenGirl. The Hoboken-Jersey City FLAG can be found on Facebook here.

Many of the towns listed above also have groups and resources to deliver food to seniors and the needy, and numerous ways to volunteer. Contact your local mayor's office or check your town webpage for more information.

On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that New Jersey had 3,219 more confirmed cases of coronavirus since the day before, as well as 94 more deaths, bringing the death toll to 2,443. Murphy also released numbers of those hospitalized. Read more.

The first announced deaths from coronavirus in the United States were just a little over a month ago. As of Monday, the U.S. death toll was up to 23,529.

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