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Interfaith Food Pantry
of the Oranges
Helping those in need in Orange & East Orange, NJ
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A proud member of the MEND network of food pantries
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Today is Giving Tuesday - Consider a contribution to IFPO!
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As IFPO volunteers and supporters, you clearly know how much we all gain when we give back. As a global movement, #GivingTuesday unites communities around the world by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another. We are very grateful for your donation of time, resources and talents to help our neighbors in Orange and East Orange.
Even before our Thanksgiving distribution, IFPO had surpassed the number of clients served in all of 2015. To date, we have now assisted 7,600 clients and emergency guests, representing more than 24,763 individuals. Forty percent of those individuals are children.
If you have already participated in our ThankServing Appeal, please accept our most sincere gratitude. If you have not yet responded to our appeal, or if you are inspired to further support the wonderful work of the IFPO, here's how you can contribute financially. While we are delighted to accept checks payable to IFPO and sent to P.O. Box 341, Short Hills, NJ 07078, you can also click the "Pay Now" button here to make an online, tax deductible contribution via Paypal. 
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Support IFPO Diaper Bank today- and your contribution will be matched by Jet.com!
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Our Diaper Program served 131 babies this October, a record high.
More than 190 babies are currently registered in our diaper program, with numbers increasing every month. Most of our diaper clients receive WIC or SNAP (food stamps), which do not cover diaper purchases. Our clients are parents who worry about getting to work or school because they cannot afford diapers for their small children in day care. Our families worry about the health of their babies when they do not change soiled diapers as often as they should because a fresh diaper costs too much.
IFPO is proud to participate in the
JetCares program, run by Jet.com. This program helps families in need by delivering high-quality baby essentials to participating nonprofit organizations like us at a fraction of the usual price.
Today only (November 29, Giving Tuesday), Jet.com will be matching all contributions to the "Give a Pack" diaper donation program (up to $1,000 per organization).
Your direct contribution
here
will allow us to purchase additional diapers to meet our client's continuing needs.
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We are thrilled to have been able to furnish groceries, the "fixings" for Thanksgiving (like cranberry sauce and gravy), roasting pans, pies, and frozen turkeys to 500 clients and members of the Orange and East Orange communities at our Nov. 23 Thanksgiving distribution An additional 75 emergency guests received turkeys and small bags of holiday groceries.
This would not have been possible without the very generous support of our many donors, as well as our Thanksgiving Sponsors, to whom we are so grateful:
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The Bass Foundation
, whose continued generosity allowed us to provide 500 clients with mini-marshmallows and a fresh apple pie, and who also contributed significantly so we could purchase additional needed turkeys;
Stop & Shop, South Orange
(and Manager Joseph Heiser)
who provided all the fixings for a snack lunch distributed to our clients as they left on Wednesday the 23rd;
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Kings Supermarkets, who donated 100 turkeys to this event.
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Members of the IFPO Board pick up turkeys from Dave Comtrenas, assistant store manager of Kings of Short Hills.
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Judy Colton and the Colton Family Foundation for financial support and for providing all our turkey roasting pans;
Elliott Sommer and the Susan Sommer Fund for Social Justice; and
Doug and Carol Simon.
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Thanks to our recent Food Drive Supporters
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Board member Cyndy Wyatt discusses the IFPO with students at TSTI (who will then sort collected food). |
We were the very grateful recipient of High Holiday food collections hosted by several congregations. The large quantities of food from these collections filled our shelves and provided most of the food needed by our pantry clients in October. Thank you to our constituent members Congregation Beth El of South Orange, Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel of South Orange, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun of Short Hills, as well as to Kol Rina.
A very
magnanimous
donor from Congregation B'nai Jeshurun matched the pound content of his congregation's High Holiday Food Drive with a substantial check to IFPO to purchase additional needed food, in honor of the tenth anniversary at TBJ of Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz.
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Coat Drives Provide Warmth for our Clients
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ECLC of New Jersey, under the direction of Bruce Litinger, delivers coats.
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Lowenstein Sandler LLP collected and delivered a virtual mountain of coats!
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Coat delivery by Chris Danuser and daughter for drive hosted by Jen Liebeman of Keller Williams Midtown Direct.
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Picking out the perfect coat in the coat tent at the Thanksgiving distribution.
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Great help was available while picking out men's coats.
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Ellen Tamaroff and Gail Roth do a great job each year organizing our coat distribution.
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We moved kid's coats to outside the tent to allow better flow to our clients. Forty percent of the clients we serve are children.
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Skipping along is part of the fun as you wait for Mom to pick out a new winter coat.
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More Images of our Thanksgiving Distribution
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Clients on line at 6:45 am! We handed out full sets of food to 500 clients as well as giving turkeys to an additional 75 emergency guests by the time our Thanksgiving event was over.
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Clients waited in the Sanctuary after they were checked in, then were escorted to the Tent to choose one adult and one children's coat. They then proceeded to the Hall for food.
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The bagging crew starts our work. We hauled out 500 of each of 22 items, and then carefully placed them into 2 bags for each client, one of regular groceries and one with Thanksgiving food like yams, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.
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Board members Shayna Smith and Kristin Sterling load fresh apple pies donated by the Bass Foundation into roasting pans.
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Susan Nasberg-Abrams and Dina Pressel and friends made 500 snack lunches for distribution to clients.
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The final stop: outside to the turkey truck for that Thanksgiving necessity.
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To collect turkeys for clients and guests, we held Turkey Drives at 4 locations,
accepted delivery on Sunday of 150 more turkeys we purchased from ShopRite,
and picked up turkeys from the Community Foodbank, as well as donated turkeys from Kings.
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We strive to treat every client with the dignity and respect they deserve.
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A handshake and a warm wish for a Happy Thanksgiving.
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SIGN UP FOR OUR CHRISTMAS DISTRIBUTION:
On Wednesday December 21, we will distribute hams, groceries and festive holiday groceries to an anticipated 400 clients.
Volunteers are needed to unload trucks, organize and fill grocery bags and distribute hams. If you will like to help with this distribution, you must
sign up in advance. Children must be at least 10 to help that day.
Help a Family at Christmas: We are so appreciative to those who chose to sponsor Christmas gifts for families with school age children who are experiencing challenges and need special support during the holidays. We will be able to make this holiday season brighter for 21 families due to your generosity.
New Toys Wanted: We are collecting NEW, NEVER USED toys for the Church of the Epiphany and Christ Church's (our host's) drive. New items may be brought to IFPO Wednesdays Nov. 30, Dec. 9 or 16, or contact
Diane Stein (dianehstein@aol.com).
If you and your family are looking for additional ways to help those in need over the holidays, see our
volunteer suggestion guide
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Celebrating Chanukah? Donate Oil to the IFPO
Chanukah
(12/24/16-1/1/17) tells us of the miracle of the oil many years ago in a land far away. This Chanukah, you can create your own miracle of the oil for people right here in our own community.
Cooking oil is one of the most requested grocery items by our food-insecure clients, but not a commodity we usually supply. We are looking to collect at least 250 plastic bottles of vegetable or canola oil (48 ounce size) for distribution to our clients during January. Please consider donating a plastic bottle of oil to IFPO, or make a donation to IFPO (checks to P.O. Box 341, Short Hills, NJ 07078 marked "oil drive" or by clicking on the "Pay Now" button here to enable us to purchase oil on sale in bulk,). Tribute cards can be sent if you donate in honor of someone for a minimum donation of $18 for this event. What a significant Chanukah gift for children or grandchildren!
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We're So Grateful to Our Partners and Volunteers
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Jen Miller of
Maplecrest Moves Charities with Diane Stein at our Nov. 23 distribution. We are so grateful that Jen brought the Maplecrest van to us to pickup food at the Community Food Bank on Nov. 16, helped us pickup fresh carrots and celery at the
Route 10 Farmer's Market on Nov. 22 and then delivered them to us on Nov. 23 for our Thanksgiving distribution.
Twenty children from Maplewood Middle School, under the direction of Ray Mantes,
6th grade Social Studies Teacher and WIN teacher, came to help out at IFPO. Read a great story from the Village Green about their day
here.
If you'd like to bring a group to Pantry, email us first at IFPOranges@gmail.com.
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Studio 509, Maplewood recently held a Diaper Drive and Karaoke Dance Party on our behalf, raising $800 as well as a collection of products for our Diaper Program. We heard the talent was amazing!
Dot Ganek, an accomplished local artist and an IFPO volunteer, made beautiful holiday ornaments available in exchange for a contribution to the IFPO. www.dorothyganek.com.
Summit Medical Group Foundation is providing monthly health screenings and medical information to our clients.
Blood Pressures, Heart Rate, BMI,
Diabetes testing, and Cholesterol information were the subjects of recent months. This week a nurse and PA from SMG Foundation will perform glucose and blood pressure testing.
Abby Schwamm Photography took wonderful photos of the Thanksgiving Distribution (so much better than those from our iphones! More
to her work to come on our website).
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More Great Photos from Our Thanksgiving Distribution
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Our registration crew checked in 500 clients for our Thanksgiving distribution. We are so thankful that they handle our multi-lingual clients with such grace and dignity.
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We were delighted to have kids home from college and those using their time off from high school
for Thanksgiving break come to help, and our clients loved having them as escorts.
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Jodi Cooperman with Jane Aronson, founder of Worldwide Orphans and the Toy Library.
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Our client's favorite Steve Rod, our amazing greeter, with Fran, his lovely wife of 48 years.
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Leaving the Sanctuary for the coat tent, then food and a turkey.
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Very grateful client and her escort at the end of the process.
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Our dedicated workers - we couldn't do this week after week without them!
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Newark Academy volunteers - past and present!
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Help from Evon Ikner and Pamela Taylor of the Orange Mayor's office.
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We filled 100 sets of bags at a time, and did this 5 times over the course of the morning.
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It took a lot of talent to create 500 snack lunches.
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And slightly older talent to hand them all out!
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At the front of the hall, we loaded "regular food" like rice, chili, soup, tuna, beans, oatmeal and peanut butter into reusable bags.
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And in the rear, we loaded Thanksgiving staples like yams, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce into brown bags. Clients also received fresh carrots and celery.
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Some of our special helpers.
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Great pies
from Delicious Orchards were donated by the Hartshorn School, and 10 terrific pumpkin pies came from Glenwood School.
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We always are amazed that our clients are able to get everything home.
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We are ever grateful to our host congregation, Church of the Epiphany and Christ Church. Father Joseph Harmon offers thanks.
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Drives and "Pantry Prep" on Sunday Nov. 20
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Laura, Bob, Reilly and Robbie Almgren were in charge of one of our Uhauls on Nov. 20, bringing it to the TSTI Drive to collect turkeys, food and coats and then to the Church.
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Pantry prep on Nov. 20 was a multi-generational affair as an army of volunteers sorted a mountain of coats.
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Coats are sorted by size and into men's, women's or kid's.
Thanks to Lowenstein Sandler for those big boxes!
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We needed to sort and store all the donated food that came in today from TSTI, Christ Church of Short Hills and other Thanksgiving drives.
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Great teen help food sorting (and then packing our shelves)!
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Part of our pantry prep was making 500 doubled bags so we'd be ready for Wednesday!
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We prepared food for the annual community Thanksgiving Luncheon at Church of the Epiphany and Christ Church
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400 families enjoyed a Thanksgiving luncheon (and leftovers!) at our host Church on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
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IFPO prepared and donated most of the food for this even
to enable a community celebration.
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Special thanks to
Rob Ubhaus of
Redux Restaurant in Madison and Chef Richard Krug of Orange Lawn, who cooked delicious turkeys for the lunch! And to Gavin Hirsch and TBJ for large quantities of stuffing, salad and fruit salad.
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