The Hoboken Food Pantry (HFP) — a part of the Hoboken Community Center (HCC) — has celebrated its one-year anniversary of responding to the pandemic with local dignitaries, residents, public workers, and volunteers who all help to feed the community.
“For over a year, the Hoboken Food Pantry has served as a lifeline for our community members impacted by the pandemic,” said Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla. “I’m incredibly proud of all of the hardworking volunteers who have given hundreds of hours of their time to assist our residents with food insecurity and in need of critical resources. The Hoboken Food Pantry is here to stay, and we as a city are glad to support them as they continue to serve Hoboken. On behalf of our Mile Square – thank you to everyone involved for all you do for our City.”
The pantry was originally established in December of 2019 by the Hoboken Community Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit at 1301 Washington St., to address food insecurity among the 96 low-income tenants in the HCC’s Single Room Occupancy affordable housing program opened in 1927.
By early 2020, in partnership with the Hoboken Housing Authority, the HFP began to provide food to senior citizens in public housing and when the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Hoboken was announced on March 13 and a statewide lockdown occurred soon after, the HFP scaled up its operation.
HCC board member Toni Tomarazzo, part of the senior leadership that started and runs the Hoboken Food Pantry, reached out to city officials and soon the HCC partnered with city council members, the mayor’s office, the Hoboken Health Department, the Hoboken Department of Environmental Services, the Office of Emergency Management and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) to coordinate the collection and distribution of thousands of pounds of food each week.
Twelve days later, on March 25, 2020, the emergency food resource center opened in the HCC with deliveries to residents in need.
“This could not have happened without the indefatigable Toni Tomarazzo who on day one of the pandemic reached out to a few of us and said ‘we need to make sure people have food.’,” said Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher. “One year later I am so proud of all who have made the Hoboken food Pantry the amazing resource it has become for our community.”
“When the pantry started a little over one year ago, we were operating out of a closet-sized room in the Hoboken Community Center to feed about 35 individuals,” said HCC Board President Ken Nilsen. “Now, thanks to more than 1,200 amazing partners and donors and 220 volunteers who worked 1,750 hours, we’ve grown into a larger space and dramatically expanded our operations to include biweekly distributions that have provided 11,615 bags of food to 1,280 households.”
HFP volunteers now run a robust operation that distributes grab-and-go bags of groceries on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at three Hoboken locations: the HFP at 1301 Washington St., the Multi-Service Center at 124 Grand St., and the Jubilee Center at 601 Jackson St.
“You give a Hobokenite a mission to volunteer or to serve a Hobokenite always comes through,” said Council President Ruben Ramos thanking the Pantry and its volunteers for assisting food-insecure residents.
“Here in Hoboken there’s a sure bet that we will rise to the occasion consistently to help our community,” said Tomarazzo
And the HFP doesn’t just distribute food. Clients also have the opportunity to “shop” for non-food items, such as diapers, toiletries and cleaning products twice per month at the HFP during Family2Family hours.
According to the most recent U.S. Census, approximately 1 in 9 Hoboken residents live below the poverty level.
The HFP has seen a sharp rise in the numbers of individuals and families struggling with food insecurity during the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis but even when the pandemic is over, the pantry will remain.
“Some things that have stuck out to me are just how grateful and relieved so many of our clients are,” said Chesleigh Meade operations manager at the HFP. “There were a few months in the beginning when the world was just starting to open back up again where people weren’t sure if the pantry was here to stay. And in those moments when we would tell them ‘yes we are here to stay we plan to continue serving the community as long as there is a need not just during the pandemic,’ I was able to glimpse a sense of relief and comfort knowing that if they needed they could depend on the pantry.”
To learn more about the HFP, including how to donate or shop the Amazon Wish List, visit hobokencc.org.
