How To Donate Food To Westfield's Needy Without Leaving Your Car

WESTFIELD, NJ — The Westfield Police Department has organized a community food drive for the needy this week that allows residents to donate without leaving their cars.

The drive — conducted in partnership with the Westfield Public Schools, the Westfield faith community, and the Westfield United Fund — will be held this Wednesday from 12 to 3 p.m. The rain date will be this Thursday.

As COVID-19 forced school closures and stay-at-home orders, Westfield Police Chief Christopher Battiloro reassigned school resource officers to work on community service projects, including restocking and delivery duties for the Westfield Food Pantry. This relieved the mostly senior food pantry staff from their at-risk, frontline responsibilities.

As the number of people in the Westfield area who are out of work continues to grow, demand for food from the Westfield Food Pantry has substantially depleted its supplies.

There will be two drop-off locations for the May 20 community food drive – Westfield High School parking lot (550 Dorian Road) and Roosevelt Intermediate School (301 Park St.) parking lot.

Residents are asked to put their food donations in the trunks of their cars so that the drop-offs can be contact-free. Each driver will be asked to remain in their car, open the trunk, and a WPD officer will come and retrieve the items.

The pantry is most in need of canned meals (stew, soup, spam, beans, etc.), spaghetti sauce, pasta, rice, macaroni & cheese, cereal, cleaning supplies and paper products.

Questions can be emailed to: fooddrive@wpdnj.org.

Monetary donations also will be accepted. These can be made through the Westfield United Fund website, westfieldunitedfund.org. Click on Donate and then enter Food Pantry in the “In Honor of” box. You can also mail a check to Westfield United Fund, 301 North Ave West, and be sure to indicate that it is for the Food Pantry.

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