Jeanne Van Orman of Princeton Monthly Meeting in New Jersey is partnering with her meeting and her retirement community, Princeton Windrows to gather food and deliver it to Mercer Street Friends using the support from the driver at Princeton Windrows.
“A 101-year-old Quaker who’s a member of Yardley Meeting lives where I live,” Jeanne said. “She sent me a newspaper article describing our representative in Congress visiting the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank at the same time the SNAP program had stopped working during the federal shutdown.” Jeanne continued, “That very same day, I said, we’ve got to do something about this.”
“I emailed the board of directors at Princeton Windrows and said I was going to start collecting food and driving it down with our driver once a week,” Jeanne said. “Within one hour, the chair emailed me back and said it was a wonderful idea.” She added, “The executive director and staff got behind it right away.” Jeanne continued, “It only took a week. We were taking food down to Mercer Street Friends a week later.”
“Mercer Street Friends has a list of what they want, and they don’t want glass or perishable items,” Jeanne said. “We set up a large bin in our mailroom and posted the list.” She added, “I’m in that mailroom every single day, making sure food is in the bin and that nothing perishable gets mixed in.”
“It’s now under Peace and Social Concerns,” Jeanne said, referring to how Princeton Monthly Meeting is involved. “Food is coming in on Sundays, and the meeting is highlighting it in the weekly newsletter.” She added, “I take the food to the Mercer Street Friends warehouse in Ewing.”
Jeanne described how Pennswood Village, a Quaker retirement community in Newtown, PA is doing something to support their community. “People sign up to provide one grocery bag of food every two months,” She continued,“It creates a regular commitment.” She added, “We’ll decide whether to adopt that model after we meet with Pennswood leaders.”
Meetings that are collecting food or exploring similar efforts are invited to contact communications@pym.org. Information about other meetings with food programs like Princeton’s is available at: https://www.pym.org/pym-meetings-and-friends-affiliates-offering-food-giving-and-resources/
