Food Rescue & Local Outreach
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Mission:
Feeding the hungry, while providing parishioners with ways to do God's work.
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Ways to help
- Pick up rescued food at specific times at specific locations in Cedar Knolls, Succasunna, and other Morris County spots and deliver to the church kitchen or deliver directly to agencies.
- Repackage food using the safe-handling protocol and provided materials. You may serve on whichever day of the week you desire—the same day, each week.
- Deliver re-packaged food to agencies in our area.
- We cook food for delivery to seniors who receive complete meals from The Interfaith Food Pantry Network (IFPN). This usually happens on Fridays.
- We also hold monthly food collections, partnered with the Interfaith Food Pantry Network (IFPN). Click here to learn more.
- Direct Support from our parish families - Many of our parish families support the IFPN directly by giving monetary donations, offering their time sorting food or helping with general pantry operations, or participating in their home delivery program (volunteer shops at the pantry on behalf of an assigned homebound client and delivers the groceries to that client).
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For more details or to become part of this ministry, contact Beth Vecchio at (973) 449-5750 or [email protected].
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We are asking parishioners and friends to donate from the list below to our project, which fills blessing bags for homeless people in Morris County. These are distributed by the Hope One van as they go on their monthly visits to enclaves, encampments, and under bridges to serve those in need. You may bring your donations to the parish office.
Items Needed:- Single-packed toothbrushes
- Toothpaste (any size)
- Deodorant
- Bar soap
- Shampoo
- Gum
Notre Dame Food Rescue Ministry thanks you for your generous support!
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How we started...
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This ministry began on the first day of lockdown for COVID-19 in March 2020. The original intent was to collect food for The Interfaith Food Pantry Network so that they could fulfill their mission to feed the newly hungry COVID-affected population. The lines were getting longer each day. Then, The Mental Health Association asked us for some of our non-perishables for their homeless, hungry clients. When we realized that they were eating out of cans, we prepared sandwiches from the donations by our parishioners. For several months we were the only donors to the Interfaith Food Pantry Network as all the houses of worship were closed.
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Through the months, we began to deliver our rescued bread and bagels to Homeless Solutions in Morris County, Loaves and Fishes in Boonton, Neighborhood House in Morristown, The Hispanic congregation at the Baptist Church in Morristown, The Table of Hope of Bethel Church in Morristown for their weekly drive-through food distribution and Father English Food Pantry in Paterson. We were striving to have the right amount of recipients for the amount of bread/bagels we were rescuing.
Eventually, we began receiving from time to time other rescued food from Whole Foods, Wawa, 7-Eleven, Walmart, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and other donors. Throughout, we have accepted monetary donations from generous folks who just reached out to ask how they could help. Eight freezers were donated, including the one which replaced the old Notre Dame kitchen freezer. Additionally, we have been able to augment our food resources and purchase a large wheeled bin for Notre Dame and another for Father English Food Pantry where there was a great need.
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