Community Pride Shines At West Orange Food Pantry Holiday Event

WEST ORANGE, NJ — In a year filled with challenges, the generosity of the West Orange community shone bright last week.

The Holy Trinity-West Orange Food Pantry reported that it gave out more than 400 turkeys and Thanksgiving side bags to families in need at a holiday distribution event on Nov. 21 and 22.

“We have an amazing township that is always so generous and so giving,” Food Pantry Administrator Cynthia Cumming said. “We can’t do what we do without our West Orange family.”

It takes a village to make the magic happen, and in West Orange, the list is long, Cumming said.

Food began pouring into the pantry with the annual ShopRite Teamsters Local 863 donation, coordinated by West Orange residents Patti Nathan and Kathy Zizza. Donations of food soon began to arrive from the Shauger Group (50 turkeys and bags), the Boland Drive community, Roosevelt Middle School, Liberty Middle School, Edison Middle School, Hazel Elementary, Gregory Elementary, West Orange Township Mayor’s Sunshine Fund, Bagels by Jarrett (turkey collections), St. George’s Church (Maplewood), St. Andrew’s Church, Adam Goldman (turkey storage at Dunkin’ Donuts), the Forum School in Wayne (food and financial support), Kessler Rehabilitation, the West Orange Police Department (food drive and traffic control), Sts. Nicholas, Constantine, and Helen Greek Christian Orthodox Church in Livingston (food and financial), West Orange Girl Scouts, West Essex Highlands, pies from Kelly Elementary and St. Cloud Schools, Sharon Avram (food drive), Barry Geltzeiler (organizing community turkey drive of 380 turkeys and delivering to the pantry with the WOHS football team), and people across the township.

Gregory Neighborhood raised $4,800 in funds to help the pantry cover food costs, and the West Orange Chamber of Commerce donated all the proceeds of their Thanksgiving Luncheon 50/50 as well, Cumming said.

“I’d also like to give a shout out to our volunteers and team at the pantry,” Cumming noted. “The amount of physical work and organization required to make it all happen is overwhelming, and everyone worked so hard – as always.”

This year’s Thanksgiving drive is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the food pantry’s community contributions, Cumming added.

In 2019, the food pantry provided food for approximately 7,000 people. When the pandemic struck, they provided food for 41,000 in 2020. In 2021 the number went down to about 24,000, and they are on track for that number again in 2022.

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