Category: Blog

Let’s talk about love. Let’s talk about violence. Let’s talk about how the two do not go together and how violence creates a pattern of destructive actions that women and their children must take in order to survive. We’ve all heard the facts about domestic violence; here are some you may not have read before:

• Women with disabilities are 40% more likely to experience partner violence (especially severe violence) than women without disabilities
• 10 million children are exposed to domestic violence each year
• Boys who witness domestic violence are 3 to 4 more times likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence
• Domestic Violence is the 3^rd leading cause of homelessness among families

It’s easy to see how Strengthen Our Sisters founder, Sandra Ramos, moved herself out of semi-retirement when she arrived in Ringwood, NJ in 1987. As an advocate in the 70s (she opened the first Women’s Shelter in North America), she was called upon and responded to the need for safe housing in the rural area of Upper Passaic County. With a group of dedicated women, Sandra set about starting a shelter for abused and homeless women.

Sandra and a Board of Directors officially founded Strengthen Our Sisters of Upper Passaic County in 1990. Since then, they have been dedicated to their mission to break the cycle of domestic violence, poverty and abuse by restoring balance and harmony through individual empowerment.

Today Strengthen Our Sisters not only provides services for women of domestic abuse and their children, but the surrounding community as well. Deeply steeped in the idea that empowerment comes from education and preparedness, Strengthen Our Sisters provides a great number of programs for the women that include; computer skills, GED, job training, and pre and post-natal education for new mothers. The Cars for Success program refurbishes donated cars for use by the women to transition to work from welfare. The Day Care, Pre-School and Food Pantry are available to the entire community.

A wider range of services including a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, counseling, legal and social advocacy, support groups, parenting sessions, communication skills development, stress management and self-esteem building, and more, are components of the program. This team is dedicated to helping women and their children find their way out of situations of crisis, doubt and danger.

The greatest achievement for the women of Strengthen Our Sister is the “Pass It On” theme of the shelter where the women, past and present, remain part of the circle of support created to help effect positive change, assertiveness, independence and self-sufficiency on the lives of these families.

Table to Table in NJ provides a reliable source of fresh, nutritious food for the food pantry nourishing the resident women and their children along with hundreds of low-income families, senior citizens and people with disabilities. The dairy, meats, fruits and vegetables that are delivered are essential for growth, development and staying healthy.

Table to Table has worked with Strengthen Our Sisters for more than five years. We could not be more in awe of the wonderful work done here. For more information on Strengthen Our Sisters, visit their main site www.strengthenoursisters.org. For more information on Table to Table and our food donation program in NJ, visit our main site! www.tabletotable.org.

We did it!  Our community joined together to make this year’s Bag a Lunch, Help a Bunch campaign the most successful one to date.  Northern New Jersey has been aflutter with our trademark brown lunch bags as more individuals and numerous new schools and companies took part in this annual fall initiative.

We thank all who donated over $50 to the program and are thrilled to announce the winner of this year’s Give More – Get More promotion.

John Coleman of Paramus Catholic HS
will choose four premium Broadway show tickets to see either Motown or If/Then

Many thanks to John and all who so graciously supported this program. And remember, although the Give More – Get More drawing has come to an end, schools and companies that wish to compete for the top ten status still have the opportunity by submitting their team results no later than midnight, Wednesday, December 10, 2014.  Take a sneak peak at the contenders to date! Official winners will be announced on our website.

Every day more families line up at food pantries and shelters waiting for our deliveries.  And every week we receive more and more calls from agencies requesting our fresh, healthy food.  Your support of programs like Bag a Lunch, Help a Bunch enable us to answer those calls with a YES!

Participate in our selfie promotion by making a donation to Table to Table and talk it up by creating a sign like the one pictured here. Post it on your page with the hashtags #selfie, #tabletotable and tag @TabletoTable. We’ll add you to our photo album. Don’t forget the number of meals you can provide during the upcoming holidays at 10 meals per $1 donation!

Copy this to your status:
Table to Table can rescue enough fresh, nutritious food to serve 10 meals to hungry families in Northern NJ for every $1 we receive. This #holiday support the cause by donating to www.tabletotable.org/selfiedonate and post this message with your #selfie and #TabletoTable. A short video works too. Copy and paste this to your #selfie post and share!

The holiday season is a time when many think about ‘giving back’.  More and more people donate money or volunteer at soup kitchens and food pantries. There are so many ways to contribute and when we learn that “1 in 5 children lives in poverty in New Jersey”, it’s hard to enjoy our own plentiful dinner while knowing that our neighbors are going without any dinner at all.  

At Table to Table in NJ, we count on volunteers and donations all year round, but holiday time presents a need for more food donations and increased funding for its delivery. The agencies that we partner with work extremely hard throughout the holiday season to ensure that no one goes without a meal and a warm place to stay. So we must pack our delivery trucks with nutritious food and hit the streets to fill their refrigerators.  Snow, rain or shine!

Want to help us this season?  Here are a few ways:

Volunteer by Holding a Fresh Food Drive

We have received more calls for food than ever this year and with a little creativity, you can help us meet the need. The single most effective way to help outside of donating money is to hold a fresh food drive.  You can do this at your office, school or even your place of worship.  It’s rewarding to do and can be very successful at this time of year!  Want to talk about it?  Drop Emily a note at eforce@tabletotable.org and she’ll help guide you through the next steps.

Donate

The holidays are a perfect time to make a gift in someone’s name. Table to Table is one of the most cost efficient non-profit organizations in NJ, and we put every donated dime to good use. This year, you can help feed a family through our donation program. For every dollar you donate we will deliver enough nutritious food for 10 meals!  We are also offering holiday cards this year.  By selecting a Table to Table holiday design you can send warm wishes while helping feed our hungry neighbors at the same time!

Become a Food Donor or Sponsor

If you own a grocery store, restaurant or food establishment and want to help a local organization in your area, we are always in need of donating partners.   Anthony at amath@tabletotable.org can answer any questions you have about food donations.

And, of course, we treasure the wonderful relationships we have established with the corporate partners who help fund our organization. From workplace giving to event sponsorships, there are so many ways to get involved. If you’re interested in becoming a partner, please reach out Edith Fiato at efiato@tabletotable.org.
To learn about all the ways you can help this holiday season, please visit our home page and go to “Join the Fight”. Then do just that – join us and help the families in our community who need it most!  Together we will serve our hungry neighbors dinner and dignity every night!

St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation

St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation in Paterson, New Jersey is a model organization that has been working in and around the Paterson community since 1966. We at Table to Table NJ are proud to have supported their good work throughout most of our 15 year history with the delivery of fresh food.

For five decades St. Paul’s mission has been to serve as an agent of hope, partnering with others to provide needs driven services that improve the quality of life and encourage greater self-sufficiency.

Utilizing a full-time staff of 21 people and hundreds of volunteers who are committed to making a positive impact on their community, St. Paul’s has flourished over the years.  They work tirelessly to coordinate local resources and non-profit organizations in NJ, like Table to Table, to accomplish their very challenging and much needed work.

The team at St. Paul’s delivers comprehensive, social services meant to provide the support and guidance needed to prevent homelessness and ultimately transition families and individuals into permanent residences. St. Paul’s offers the resources of managers, mentors, teachers, health care providers, social workers and counselors on every level throughout a client’s transition.

Currently, St. Paul’s works with more than 7,000 individuals and families each year. As a result of education programs, workforce training, and affordable housing, positive changes have been made in the daily lives of these program participants.

As one of our receiving partners, nutritious food is delivered to St. Paul’s at no cost.   This enables them to reallocate their precious dollars and put them toward these transformative programs that foster longer-term benefits.

For more information on the program at St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation, visit the SPCDC website.  For more information on our food rescue program, take a look at “How We Do It”.

At Table to Table we have been fortunate enough to partner with organizations that work persistently to ensure that the food received from our food rescue program provides access to a nutritional meal for each of their clients. One of those exceptional organizations is PERC.

The Palisades Emergency Residence Corporation, or “PERC”, located in Hudson County N.J., has been serving the community for 32 years. Throughout those three decades, the New Jersey non-profit has provided a shelter, a soup kitchen, a food pantry and even permanent housing to those in need.

The staff and volunteers at PERC work tirelessly to meet the annual increase in participants and demand for additional services. Supplemented with Table to Table deliveries of nearly 103,000 pounds of fresh, nutritious food, in 2013 alone, PERC provided more than 20,000 nights of shelter for individuals and families, the soup kitchen served close to 96,000 meals and the food pantry provided over 13,000 boxes of groceries to low-income families suffering from hunger and food insecurity.

PERC also works to educate the community much like we do at Table to Table. Their team has helped to debunk the stereotypes of poverty showing that there is no one group of people and no single circumstance at its root. Those who suffer are our neighbors, families and senior citizens from every area and every situation.

One of the inspirational stories that can be found on the PERC website is the life changing story of Mario. As a young man, Mario had to leave home because his mother was unable to afford food for the family.  After a period of time living on the streets, he ended up at PERC. With the food and shelter that the organization was able to provide, Mario was provided the stability he needed to work towards a better future.  Mario is now finishing college.

PERC provides assistance and hope to those in need and over the years has had an enormous impact on the community in Union City.  It has been a privilege for Table to Table to partner with the agency by providing the reliable food source that helps them do the extraordinary work they are known for.

For more information on PERC, visit www.percshelter.org.   For more information on Table to Table and our food rescue program, visit www.tabletotable.org.

When thinking of the people most likely to be food insecure, senior adults rarely come to mind.  Generally speaking, we tend to believe that seniors are able to reap the benefits of their lifetime of hard work and have people who can take care of them.  That is not always the case.

For seniors without children, those who have lost their significant other, or those whose families are facing hard times themselves, life can get pretty tough.  Retirement accounts have been challenged and stretched leaving many striving to just afford rent and basic necessities. When family lives far away, assessing the needs of elderly parents or grandparents becomes difficult and adds to the likelihood of a loved one needing assistance.

Seniors living in some of the most affluent areas are struggling.  Many purchased their homes when the community was less affluent, lived there for 40 and 50 years, and now find that they are unable to afford the high property taxes and other skewed costs inherent to the area.  They are physically and emotionally unable to move out of the only place they know to be home – and eating a decent meal is frequently one of the first sacrifices made.

On our Feeding NJ page, we have compiled vital statistics on some of the facts about hunger in our area. Through this research, we found that more than 25% of seniors live in a household where the income is 200% below the federal poverty level.  Think about managing your budget on little over $1,300 a month.  Well, the average senior adult has an income of $15,730 a year.  And that has to cover their home, utilities, clothes, transportation, medicine, health expenses and food.

Recent statistics show that in the United States, nearly 5 million adults over the age of 60 are food insecure. That means that 10% of all senior adults do not know where their next meal will come from.  Even more alarming, projected figures for 2025 suggest the number of food insecure seniors will increase by 50%.

The good news is that we have the ability to help. Much of the nutritious food we rescue is delivered to organizations that feed senior adults in this community.  It has been shown that a healthy diet, filled with fresh produce, lean meats and whole grains, helps to stave off some of the negative effects of aging.  And whether it’s a church, a shelter, or a local community center, the seniors not only can rely on their next meal, but they also have a chance to socialize and become part of a community, providing a social and emotional benefit in addition to the benefit of physical health.

For more information on the statistics surrounding hunger, visit the Feeding NJ page. For information on how you can help Table to Table NJ visit our Ways to Give page.

While most people know that there are hungry people around the world and that homelessness is pervasive in some regions, many are unaware of what is going on within their own community. Did you know that in New Jersey, in 2012, there were 114,000 children under the age of five living in poverty? Did you know that one-third of New Jersey residents do not earn enough to afford basic necessities, including food?

What does it mean to be food insecure? The most common definition of food insecurity is a person who does not know where their next meal will come from. According to the USDA, 15.9 million children are food insecure. How does that translate to the people Table to Table helps?

It might be surprising to learn how many food insecure people are living within the four counties our not-for-profit feeds. According to Map the Meal Gap 2013 (Feeding America):

In Hudson County, 16.9% of the population, which includes over 31,000 children, is food insecure

In Essex County, 19.6% of the population, which includes 35,000 children, is food insecure

In Passaic County, 15.3% of the population, which includes nearly 30,000 children, is food insecure

And in Bergen County, 9.9% of the population, which includes 29,000 children, is food insecure

The great thing about Table to Table is that we rescue food that would otherwise be discarded (but is still in date and 100% healthy) and bring it directly to the people who need it most, right here in this area. No warehousing, no sorting, no fuss.  Food is picked up and delivered on the same day.  In some cases, it is on the plate of a hungry child that very same night.  We do this at the internal cost of only 10 cents/meal, making us one of the most cost-effective hunger relief organizations in the country.

In 2013 alone, Table to Table rescued enough food to provide more than 11 million meals. In 2014, we will provide 13 million meals.  Along with the satisfaction of bringing millions of nutritious meals to our hungry neighbors is the joy of knowing that this food is not only nourishing, but is also the key to their ability to develop and learn and stay healthy.

The main ingredient to our success, however, is those who volunteer, donate and contribute to this important work.  To find out more about what we are doing to make a difference in our community, please visit our “How we Help” page.

Consider This

Did you know that according to the National Resources Defense Council, Americans throw out about 40% of the edible food produced, which amounts to roughly $165 billion in waste per year?  That number might seem a bit shocking, but it is true.  On a positive note, Table to Table has made a commitment to rescue edible, excess food and ensure that is accessible to the people who are hungry in northeast New Jersey, for as long as our help is needed.  It is our mission and more importantly, it is our privilege to do so.

Table to Table helps our struggling neighbors answer the question of where their next meal will come from.  To find out how you can join us and become a part of the solution, check out our donation options.