By Cynthia Cumming
WEST ORANGE, NJ — Let’s talk turkey, West Orange. You are awesome. Amazing. Generous. Thoughtful. I could go on, but I think you get the point. How do I know? Read on.
As most of you are aware, the Holy Trinity-West Orange Food Pantry provides food on a monthly basis to approximately 150 families ranging in size from one to 10 — 500 or so persons a month, two to three tons of food. At Thanksgiving regular members get their regular food plus a turkey and sides and we give out even more if we have it.
About three years ago, a group of residents, organized by Barry Geltzeiler, began utilizing social media to help us collect turkeys. We purchase our allotment through the Community Food Bank at a reduced rate but it would create a financial bind to buy all those birds ourselves.
The first year Barry collected about 55 turkeys. Last year it was 139. That was fantastic, because the West Orange fire and police benevolent associations got us 50 apiece. We were swimming in turkeys. Literally. We keep them in baby pools in Guild Hall. It’s quite a sight to see turkeys and tons of sides donated by the township, school district and community flying out the door at warp speed.
This year, though, outshone them all — 272 turkeys were collected by Geltzeiler’s Gobblers Crew, not to mention several more that were personally dropped off by our amazing neighbors and friends.
Perhaps after all these years I have just come to expect this of the West Orange community, because I know. I know what our town is really like. It has heart, it has soul, and as diverse and as big as it is, it’s still like a small hometown where people are always willing to help. When the DPW dropped off the remaining food from the Mayor’s Sunshine Fund Thanksgiving baskets, I saw one of our visiting volunteers from the National Council of Jewish Women crying. The poor woman was sick, and she still came because it mattered to her. So here she is crying and I ask, “Are you OK?” She says, sniffling, “I’m so overwhelmed by this.”
She then turns to me and says, “This is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it. I hope you’re going to thank everyone somehow, maybe write something.”
And so here it is West Orange. With my deepest gratitude for who you are and all you do, our team at the Holy Trinity-West Orange Food Pantry wants to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We are so happy to be in this with you, and we hope you feel the same. You made a big difference in the lives of many families this Thanksgiving, and in ours as well.
To donate, make checks payable to Holy Trinity-West Orange Food Pantry, 315 Main St., West Orange NJ 07052. Learn more on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HolyTrinityWestOrangeFoodPantry, or contact me at holytrinitywo@gmail.com or 201-341-9217.
Photos Courtesy of Cynthia Cumming
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