IRVINGTON, NJ — Back to aid those who are in need this holiday season was the Irvington Education Association, which held a food giveaway for Irvington residents at Irvington High School on Nov. 20. The event also gave residents the chance to receive their COVID-19 vaccines from the Irvington Department of Health.
The IEA is the labor union for school district staff in Irvington. The New Jersey Education Association, the statewide labor union for school staff, helped support this event through an NJEA Pride grant.
IEA treasurer and Pride Chairperson Lauren Greenfield told the Irvington Herald that the event provided a great deal of food, such as cereal, soups, pastas, potatoes, carrots, eggs, frozen turkeys, etc. Residents were able to get what they needed for a hearty meal this Thanksgiving.
“We have so much food today,” Greenfield said. “I think the community expects us (to help them) now, which is great because they know that we’ll be here and this is right on time for Thanksgiving, so we’re trying to make sure that everyone has not just what they need for that meal, but what they need for the week, since we will be closed for school for three days. We had 115 residents preregistered, which is great. We have enough food for 125 families to come today. And for the vaccines, we’ve had over 56 residents registered, but we’ve had double that show up today — children and adults. We are also giving booster shots.”
According to IEA President Michael Byock, the majority of the food was provided by the ShopRite of Newark; the turkeys were acquired from the ShopRite in Bloomfield.
“We’re here doing a food giveaway for the community along with a vaccination clinic to try to help the town get our students and our parents vaccinated,” Byock said at the event. “This event was a lot of hard work and effort, especially for Lauren Greenfield, who is my right hand when it comes to events like this. We just spent a lot of time dealing with the district and dealing with the town trying to get this event going, making sure we get all the foods from ShopRite and bagging them up between everything else I do in my position.
“The vaccines being offered to the residents is, in my opinion, one of the greatest things we could’ve done,” he continued. “We’re so happy that we’re able to offer it to them because we need to get our students vaccinated. We need to protect our members, students, parents and our community members from COVID-19. I believe this event has been very successful. We’ve had lines of people getting vaccinated, including a lot of younger children of ages 5 and older. We’ve given away a lot of food to help our needy families at this time, and we will hold another event like this in April right before Easter.”
NJEA Vice President Steve Beatty, who attended the event, praised the work done by Byock and Greenfield. He said it was great to see an NJEA Pride grant used for food distribution and vaccinations.
“It’s a great event to bring out the community to get food and get vaccinated,” Beatty said at the event. “This is a fantastic event. We encourage this and we work with our locals. Michael and Lauren, all the people here, are great at this, and they know what it means to be a part of the community, and we’re really proud of them. I’m happy to be part of this.”
Witnessing the large turnout of the event was Irvington Councilwoman at large Charnette Frederic.
“The most important thing as an elected official is (that) we give residents access, a way to ensure that they can come and get the vaccine. We also have vaccinations throughout the municipality. We will be there to support our residents. I know there’s always needs within our community. Providing (for) those needs with this food giveaway is amazing. I commended the whole leadership of the NJEA for doing such an incredible job in the municipality,” Frederic said at the event.
Photos by EmilyAnn Jackman
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