South Ward Councilwoman Sandy Jones, right, stands with Helen Andrews, second from right, and her fellow National Council on Negro Women members on Saturday, Nov. 18, during her group’s Thanksgiving basket giveaway at Solid Rock Baptist Church on Chancellor Avenue.
IRVINGTON, NJ — South Ward Councilwoman Sandy Jones joined members of the National Council of Negro Women for a Thanksgiving basket giveaway at Solid Rock Baptist Church on Chancellor Avenue on Saturday, Nov. 18.
“We meet here at Solid Rock Baptist Church and we’re distributing Thanksgiving baskets for families in need. So I have a family that I know is in need and we distributed about 15 baskets today,” said Helen Andrews, a NCNW member from East Orange, on Saturday, Nov. 18. “We’re just trying to do the right thing by people in our neighborhood. That’s what we’re all about.”
According to Andrews, the baskets were filled to the brim with traditional Thanksgiving dinner items, including canned goods, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, corn and assorted supplies, and then they also donated a turkey to the family. The giveaway was unrelated to the regular food pantry service that the church provides weekly for the needy.
“Because we’re a member of the national council, we just donated all of the stuff ourselves,” said Andrews. “We made the baskets up. We had a member actually donate the baskets and each member brought an item to contribute to the basket and make it up. The National Council of Negro Women is a community organization that does community work and scholarships and anything to make the quality of life better for our community. It was founded by Mary Mcleod-Bethune.”
Jones said that sounds pretty good to her. She’s a member of both the National Council of Negro Women and Solid Rock Church.
“The organization, they did turkeys and baskets, so we wanted to share our wealth with the community,” said Jones on Saturday, Nov. 18. “I’m not just a councilwoman, I’m a member, too.”
Andrews said the National Council of Negro Women meets inside Solid Rock Church on the second Sunday of every month at 3 p.m.
“Happy Thanksgiving everybody and anyone that’s interested in joining please come down; you’re more than welcome,” said Andrews. “We’re a fairly new organization. The organization itself is not new, but we’re a fairly new chapter operating out of Newark.”
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