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As 2003 wound to a close, the Food Bank was delighted
to be the recipient of a panel van, courtesy of AmerGen. The Lacey Beacon was there to record the event which was attended
by Chairman Guy and his trusty volunteers. We've needed a vehicle for several years, and the storesmaster (seen in photo behind
the wheel) will finally be able to get it done in one trip a day, instead of several. Amergen also donated the first
year's insurance.
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| Is that the storesmaster behind the wheel? |
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| Amergen VP Ernie Harkness - LFB CEO Guy Burnett |
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Coming together at the end of a busy year, food bank volunteers met for
lunch at Caffrey's Steak House, home to Dan Coleman and Bill Ellis, our first esteemed sponsors. Rose Furbeck coordinated
the luncheon and over 20 volunteers turned out to take the chance to share the fellowship of a job well done this year.
Santa Claus Came to Town !
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| We wish you a merry.... |
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| The McClaus Workshop |
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| Sally McClaus |
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| A McElf wrapper, Anne B. |
Ho ho ho! And a Merry Christmas to You ! November's distribution
was attended by 115 families, who received ham or turkey dinners along with their regular supplies while picking up gifts
for the food bank kids. Sally McGahey's committe managed, in two months, to collect, buy and wrap over 260 gifts with each
child receiving an article of clothing and a toy. Besides the individually chosen & labelled gifts, there was a large
area of "take me" clothes and toys for the moms and kids to choose. It was a masterful job with the McGahey household
(above) crammed to the rafters. The huge pile was then moved to Lois Guthrie's garage for storage, and again early Friday
morning thanks to the loan of a truck from Skip Peters. Now THAT is a lot of movement. Meanwhile, Pete Peters,
(yes,a relation) serenaded the crowd with Christmas music. This distribution marks an all time high for the food bank
and culminates a successful year of serving our clients.
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| The Art of Giving |
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| "Bowls of Plenty" |
An Artsy Donation
Linda Devlin,and her 7th &
8th grade Middle School art club students presented one of the more unique fundraising endeavors ever
held for the food bank. Crafting paper mache bowls to represent that "which needs filling with food", the students then brought
their creations to various events held at the school and solicited drop in donations for the food bank. A presentation was
held to show off their creations and gift the food bank. Here are photos taken by Bruce McGahey our I.D. and official food
bank representative at the gifting. Thanks kids and Miss Devlin. (we hinted that perhaps their next project might be to produce
some art work for our newly renovated quarters )
Food Bank Angels
The following friends of the food
bank pledged to become monthly contributors
throughout 2003 and now, as of December, have joined the ranks of our "esteemed" sponsors - each supporting one + food
bank families by contributing $20 or more monthly for a total of $240. This steadfast support means a lot to those of us who
work so hard to achieve our goals. And for this we thank you.
Anthony Macaluso
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth McGowan
Doris Piserchia
Vera Aiello *
Carole Zirpolo*
Elizabeth Geiger*
Anna &Tom Dorso
Ann Kish
John & Bridget Lewis
* Esteemed sponsors last year
Food Bank Makes the Front Page
The Lacey Beacon featured the service work done by the Forked River Rotary
Club and Lacey High School's INTERACT club which collected and donated 109 turkeys and accompanying food baskets
for needy families. (by the following Tuesday, this figure had increased to 114)
This extraordinary gift, an annual tradition, was coordinated by Bruce
Halliday, the Rotary's Director of Community Services, and Julie Ann Pignatoro, advisor to the 25 student members of
Interact. Shown below are Jess Jakositz and Rachel Egbert of Forked River, sorting out food stuffs at the food bank's distribution
center. Chairman Guy Burnett pointed out that this was the largest distribution in the bank's history. The Lacey Food
Bank, as have most food pantries and programs, has seen a surge in client rolls this year, due to the economy
and unemployment.
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| INTERACT- on the job! |
Informational Day at ShopRite
| Linda helping a little shopper |
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| Samantha Pawlik and Mom |
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| Sally & Her $ Jar |
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| Sally's Secret Weapons! |
Sally Mac and her busy bunch of helpers
made an appearance at ShopRite on Saturday, November 22. Besides "flyering" the shoppers with information re: the Food Bank,
this collection was to benefit the Food Bank Kids gift fund. Despite suffering from a virus, Sally raised over $600 in
five hours with the help of her "elves", Ziggie, Steffie, Mary Hill, Linda, Harriet Brown and Emil. Her secret weapons, shown
above were Erin Hopson and Catie McMahon. Who could possibly refuse to shower them with dollar bills? Next, comes the buying
and wrapping of the presents. (All toys gratefully accepted)
Introducing
"Merry Christmas Blue"
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| A Merry Christmas Blue to you! |
Bruce McGahey has surpassed himself with the
design of "Christmas Blue" which joins it's partners, the Big Blue cans, which are now Big Blue "Redux" (since
their recent renovation) the Little Blue Nickle cans & " Super Blue". You can meet "Christmas Blue" right
down the street from our headquarters in the Rite Aid Pharmacy. Customers are being asked to drop in a gift
for the food bank kids. Notice how Bruce built in little racks for our fliers.
The gift committee is being led by Sally McGahey.
Sally and her committee of gift elves will be sorting, counting and shopping for gifts for all the food bank kids..
Dot Mehler, who is in charge of the "Nickels for St. Nick" campaign will keep her cans out until the first week
of December. Right now she is busy calling mothers for sizes of their kids. Both new clothes and toys will
be appreciated as donations.
The Asbury Park Press came to visit during
the October distribution and gave the food bank a needed PR boost. Here's the busy storesmaster, Dick Sansone, setting
out his stock for the "take me" table. Eleven new clients signed up this month - something we see happen each
fall as heating costs and medical bills seems to hit at the same time.
Here's our official "Embassador" to the township committee,
Zygmund (Ziggie) Zwierchowski, who is also the Food Bank's ranking #2 volunteer in service years, holding a
bountiful check for $3,000, courtesy of the Lacey Day Committee. The annual event designates a beneficiary of some of the
proceeds and this year we were the lucky ones.The check was presented by 2003 Lacey Day Chairman Tim Donahue (r) during the
October 9th Township Committee meeting. (Chairman Guy immediately ordered 3 months worth of food gift certificates - 100 certificates
x 3 months = 300 certificates x $10 each = $3,000. ) A boon for the food bank for sure!
New Members of the Esteemed Sponsors
Club
Thank you Bruce & Cindy
Januik and Home Depot for your contributions. Thanks to your generosity, we can
add to our stock of food gift certificates . And welcome back to Jersey Shore
Pools ( Jim & Cheryll Knoeller), who have renewed their committment
as an esteemed sponsor.
Be assured that the members of this
club are the finest people in Lacey !
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| ShopRite & Lacey Food Bank, Perfect Together ! |
Here's ShopRite's Jennifer McMahon and
Steve Chabot, (front) along with Food Bank volunteers Dick Sansone, Ziggie Zwierchowski, Guy Burnett and Steffie Serena. A
beautiful breezy day under the tent.
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| Steve, Dunking for $$$ |
The Dunk Tank was a roaring success.Co-workers
& families of the ShopRite "dunkees" gleefully paid $$ to see them sink, to the ringing of Dick's ship's bell .
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| Emil Ciangetti & Big Blue Crew Ron, Jim & Gene |
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| Gerry & Sally |
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The Skiffway girls, left, " fliered" the
crowd with our new brochures, in all over 2,000 of them. Spot the Dolphin (above) Steffie Serena's brainchild, she offered
candy for a donation to his tummy. Great initiative Steffie! Cindy Januik rustled up building kits from her employer,
Home Depot, with the proceeds also going to the food bank. The volunteers do have a knack for this sort of thing,
don't they?
Also, note the great new "stuff" we have. The banner,
courtesy of ShopRite will adorn the walls of our new space when it is done. And along with "Super Blue" it will
find it's way around town in the future....
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| Cindy, Shane & Madison |
Lacey Day = fun for the family. Meet
Food Bank "Girl Friday" Cindy Janiuk with her children, Shane & Madison.
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The strength of the Food Bank depends on the volunteers and as you can see, our volunteers
turned out to make this day a huge success. Our pantry will benfit from the dollars donated, and we will continue to benefit
down the road from the public education provided via the brochures. Thanks to all who participated and to the public who supported
us financially..
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| Rose & Howard Furbeck |
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| Al Bille, Dick Sansone and "Big Blue" |
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| "Quality Code Officer" Linda |
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A warm welcome to our new volunteers,
Linda Schwiebert (seen above at Lacey
Day) & Betty Ashley
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Well, we've got Big Blue, Little Blue,
Now meet SUPER BLUE ! Designed by Bruce McGahey for Lacey Day, it is geared to bring in $$$$ donations.In the background
is Bruce's salty garage workshop.
Boys will be boys, won't they? Here are Pete &
Dick playing with the snazzy new cart that Skip Peters from RWP Construction donated to the food bank. With all the in 'n
outing of food, this new toy really helps. (If we can get the stores master up and out on his feet!)
The informational day at Lacey Shop Rite on Saturday,
July 19th, was a rousing success. Chairperson Sally McGahey reports over 1,000 of our new fliers were given out to the busy
Saturday shopping crowd. Sally's volunteer roster included two leaders of Brownie Troop #243, Peggy Sue Juliano &
Cheryl Monticcio along with Marisa & Nicholas Juliano and Erika Monticchio.
While we were getting information out, the public in
return responded generously with the barrels needing emptying twice, and the glass jar labeled "donations" filled to the top.
Volunteers aiding the chairperson were: Steffie Serina,
Gerry Philips, Mary Hills, Rebecca Scalia, Ziggie Zwierchowski, Rose & Howard Furbeck, Harold Peters, Gene Mallon,
Ron Kopchinsky, Emil Ciangetti and Dick, the stores master himself (he just loves to be in ShopRite)
We are grateful to our friends at Shop Rite allowing
us to spread the word and for being such a good sponsor in every way. We will be under their umbrella at Lacey Day, so we
hope to see you there!
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| Bzzzzzzzzzz ! |
The Mosquito Saddle Project, an invention by our clever
and witty trustee,Lois Guthrie, is off and running.. Please see the page allocated for it on this web site. A humorous look
at the mosquito situation at the Jersey Shore, along with a fund raising mission makes it a deadly combo.... send it along
to your friends and family. ( great gifts )
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| "Nickels for St. Nick" |
"NICKELS FOR ST.NICK"
Meet Little Blue - the result of a
collaboration between volunteeers Shirley Schmidt, who thought of the idea, Dorothy Mehler who volunteered to chair the idea,
and Bruce McGahey, whose craftsmanship is shown here. Look for the little blue cans on counters ( including our trailer )
or at local meetings. Save your nickels for St.Nick ... all proceeds will go towards getting the food bank kids a gift from
St. Nick. Bruce's re-design of the Big Blue cans at ShopRite increased the donations ten fold, so we just know that the Little
Blue cans will do well. If you are willing to host a can or know of someone who will, call Dorothy at 693-5117, after 4pm
please. She can also use help in getting the cans to their locations....hmm, this might be a good class project - spread the
word.
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We are honored to be part of the Lacey
cop card program. Yes, we were interviewed by a member of the police department, but forgot all about it until the cards came
out. Here you see the front of the card with it's outstanding graphic.. on the back is contact information along with this
wonderful thought :
"Whatever we possess becomes more valuable
when we share it with others"
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| Card #67 |
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A Visit From the Press of Atlantic City
The captions read: (top photo) "Food Bank
Volunteers Jim Joyce of Forked River, Ron Kopchinsky of Lanoka Harbor, center, and Steffie Serina of Forked River arrange
items for distribution to needy families at the Lacey Community Hall. (bottom left) "Ann Brinkman arranges some of the items
to be given out" and (bottom right) "Zygmund Zwierchowski of Forked River unloads boxes of food for distribution by
the food bank".
Intergenerational Club Visits LFB
The food bank was pleased
to host a visit this month from students and senior members of the Intergenerational Club Accompanied by Director of
student services, Dave Weiss, teacher Linda Devlin, Nancy Guerro, Lacey school bus driver and senior club members Eileen Tranz
and Elvira Gavarny, the students (see below) unloaded their many bags and boxes of food, carried them into the small temporary
quarters of the food bank, then sorted and stacked them for the stores master..It gave a lift to the volunteers, who have
struggled through this harsh winter and relocation. This club has become a good friend to the Food Bank and we thank them
for that.
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| Glad to see you ! |
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| Moving it out . . . |
| While sorting peazze , it's quite a squeeze ! |
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| Intergenerational - Working Together |
Food Bank volunteers who hosted the club included Dick Sansone,
Ziggie Zwierchowski, Emil Ciangetti, Rose & Howard Furbeck, Sally McGahey, and spouse Bruce, aka the I.D, who provided
the pictures.
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| A job well done ! |
7th & 8th grade students representing
the club were: Bryan Rebensfein, Nick Mozak, Mike Morries, Jamic Gallagher, Kristen Klvin, Jaimie Hinshelwood and Mcghan Van
Blarcum. Thanks kids, friends in need are friends indeed !
The Winter
0f '03
Life hasn't been easy down at the old food
bank. Snow, then more snow. Cancellations, phone calls, moving all the food, oh woe. It's a good thing we have such great
volunteers and Casey's DPW crew or all would be lost....Here's a look at just what goes on to get ready for distribution day.
And lest you think that this is a HUGE amount of food, keep in mind that 2 cans of tuna plus 2 cans of soup per bag =
200 cans of tuna and 200 cans of soup, or 16 cases...And so, the tuna & soup comes and the tuna &
soup goes !
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| THIS STUFF has to be moved ! |
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| DPW pals to the rescue ! |
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| On to Community Hall, our TEMP quarters |
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The Great Blizzard of '03
Wow - this one put us over the
top! After a couple weeks of shovelling one or two inches off the trailer ramps, it was time to call it quits
! And so for the first time in many years, (maybe Emil, Ziggie or Ralph could tell us just how many) the
distribution had to be postponed for a week.
This of course required the making of
many phone calls (Thanks Ms. Dorothy) and re-arrangements, all falling on the poor head of Storesmaster Dick because
Chairman Guy was lolling around in Florida through the whole mess. Thanks to township clerk, Veronica and DPW head,
Casey, the rescheduling was cleared.
Ah well, as someone once said, if
winter is here,
can Spring be far behind?
Pictures courtesy of the ID Bruce, and his mate Sally, who braved
the snow, ice and cold to get pictures.
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| Got Snow? Oh YES! |
COME ON IN !
The Food Bank welcomes new volunteers,
Jim Joyce, Cindy Januck, Harold Peters , Gene Mallon & Ron Kopchinski
Undismayed by the cramped quarters, they are willing to give their all. Of course, the one attraction we offer
are a great bunch of
co-volunteers, a jolly group
indeed.
January is fundraising month. The
reception we receive from our mailings to the public, and the business, professional and medical communities is a fair indication
on what we have to work with for the year.
As usual, the general public leads
the way with a solid response, we thank you all for your continued support.
Only the first few weeks in January
and we are off to a great start. The Woman's Club continues to hold a tuna fish collection at each meeting, and
this month added hot chocolate for our "baby birds". They have literally taken care of our tuna needs for the month.
We received a generous
donation from Fleet Bank, making them our first esteemed sponsor for 2003. This gift is earmarked to buy ShopRite
food certificates for the clients.
The Lacey Elks and ShopRite have displayed
faith in the progrm by renewing their esteemed sponsorships.
Welcome and a sincere "thank you" to
new esteemed
sponsors - East Coast Engineering, Dr. Dennis Novak
& Brick Wall Corporation.
Shoppers been great in filling "BIG
BLUE" especially with ShopRite's can -can sale going on. So much in fact, that the storesmaster called in the gang of
volunteers for extra duty this week. Thanks to all who care enough to remember the can and the people it serves.
And thanks to all of the volunteers who work so hard.
TEMPORARY RELOCATION !
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| " Oof, one more push ...." |
" Out with the old, in with the new " had a double
meaning for us folks at the food bank. After a successful and hectic holiday season, here is what it looks like at the
food bank at the beginning of the new year - Two trailers, end to end, with a connecting ramp. (courtesy of Casey Parker and
his talented crew) They are parked adjacent to the old MUA building, where Board of Ed students will be renovating
the building for the next five or six months. For that reason, monthly distributions will be held at Community Hall, corner
of Route 9 and Lacey Rd. until further notice. Thanks to volunteeer Bruce McGahey and his "get-everything-moved-and-squeezed-in-place"
design, everything fits where it should fit. Now, we have to fill that trailer with food which has been severely depleted
because of the move and the holidays. Fill those blue barrels please !
Here's Storesmaster Dick Sansone
(who lives in ShopRite, you know) and Chairman Guy presenting a certificate
proclaiming ShopRite as an "Esteemed sponsor and friend to the needy
" to Community Affairs Liaison, Jennifer McMahon.
Others in this elite group of 2002 honorees
included: Caffrey's Tavern; The law offices of Arthur Stein & Associates; Discovery Refuse Management; Jersey Shore Pools;
The Lacey Garden Club; Lacey Employees Sunshine Club; Ocean First Bank; Mr. & Mrs. Robert Erb; Katherine Moser; Vera
Aillo; Elizabeth Geiger;Carole Zirpolo; Phillip & MaryAnn Czech; Rebecca Brown & Thomas Young, & Lois Guthrie
Financial services .
All of these fine caring people\ businesses\professionals
have contributed enough money - $240 per family annually - to provide one, and in some cases, many needy families
with a monthly food certificate and food. It takes a community, doesn't it?
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