Woman’s Club supports IHN

Photo Courtesy of Mary Lou Phifer Interfaith Hospitality Network Executive Director Emma Justice, left, accepts a $500 check from Phyllis Scalera, sitting, and Mary Lou Phifer of the Maplewood Woman’s Club’s Evening Membership Department.
Photo Courtesy of Mary Lou Phifer
Interfaith Hospitality Network Executive Director Emma Justice, left, accepts a $500 check from Phyllis Scalera, sitting, and Mary Lou Phifer of the Maplewood Woman’s Club’s Evening Membership Department.

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The Evening Membership Department of the Maplewood Woman’s Club presented Emma Justice, executive director of Interfaith Hospitality Network of Essex County, with a check for $500 to aid in the network’s purchase of a new van.

The IHN provides 20 to 25 homeless families each year with shelter and meals through a network of churches and synagogues with the goal of helping families find permanent housing. Participating churches in Maplewood include Prospect Presbyterian Church, Morrow Memorial Church, Our Lady of Sorrows Church and St. Joseph’s Church, which house and feed the families at various times during the year. The van is needed to transport the parents and children to the churches, the IHN Family Resource Center in Montclair, work, school and after-school care.

The Woman’s Club members have been supporting IHN for more than 15 of its 27 years with hygiene bags filled with the necessary toiletries people in sheltered care need, book bags with school supplies for children returning to school, and food as needed.