Thank you to our volunteers and donors for your incredible support! You are helping to make significant difference in our community at this very important time. Currently, 19 of our 21 member pantries remain open, and we are supporting them in the unique ways that work best for each pantry.
How Can You Help?
Donate Food/Organize a Food Drive
See our list of 10 Most Needed Items and contact us (info@mendnj.org or 862-250-5216) for more details.
Donate Funds
We appreciate our generous supporters, and couldn’t do this without you! If you have already donated, please consider spreading the word to others.
Volunteer
Including social-distancing-friendly driving shifts (updated regularly, so check back often!).
What Are We Doing?
- Hosting bi-weekly conference calls with pantry managers to assess evolving food and operational needs, and determine how best to support them as this health crisis continues.
- Organizing doorstep and online food drives that raised over 5,600 items to help us meet the initial demand. As this crisis evolves, we will likely continue these efforts.
- Regularly seeking donations of and purchasing and delivering fresh produce to complement the traditional non-perishable foods offered by pantries to their patrons.
- Providing member food pantries with additional financial support to help round out existing food donations and inventory.
- Sharing best practices for food distribution procedures to help protect volunteers and patrons.
- Working with other non-profits and local government and community leaders to ensure adequate food in areas where supply is low.
- Launching the new MEND Fresh Food Hub in Orange, NJ, to support increased sourcing, storing and transporting of fresh and healthy food for the pantries.
- For pantries that have temporarily closed, MEND is helping to move their extra food to other pantries and redirecting patrons to open sites.
- Maintaining contact with the NJ Department of Human Services and encouraging pantry mangers to ensure eligible patrons are signed up to receive SNAP benefits (formerly food stamps).
