Franciscan Charities needs your help.
We’ve been monitoring the response by state and local officials to the coronavirus (COVID-19). In an effort to comply with governmental guidelines and yet fulfill our mission to ensure that all who are hungry are fed, we’ve closed our soup kitchen dining room and are pivoting to a distribution of “Meals To Go” for the next six to eight weeks.
These Meals To Go bags will be generous — a hearty warm meal, sandwich, snack, milk box, and any other appropriate food items we can add to help our clients and their families make it through their day. The bags will be distributed at our 7th Street entrance on Mondays through Thursdays and Saturdays, from 12 – 1 p.m.
We made this difficult decision, mindful of our mission to tend to the critical needs of the poor. Each year Franciscan Kitchens serves over 100,000 hot nutritious meals, prepared by a professional staff and supported by more than 300 volunteers.
But a crisis like this presents unique challenges.
We anticipate that demand will be higher than usual, as many of our clients may find themselves without work or government support, and many children will be going without the meals they otherwise would receive at school. So we will need more food.
And we will need more food that can be quickly and easily prepared, packaged and distributed – food that we will now need to buy. This is an unanticipated cost, as we rely often on donations of fresh and perishable food items for the preparation of our hot meals.
We appreciate that this crisis is unsettling and impacts everyone. Low-income families and those working for a minimum wage in particular will be most affected by closing businesses and schools. For many of them, where to find the next meal for themselves and their families will be the most pressing issue they face each day.
Five dollars buys one Meal to Go – a healthy, filling meal plus a little more to bring home to get through the day.
Can you help us? For more information and make a donation GO HERE.
“It is in giving that we receive.”
Franciscan Charities, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) federal income tax exempt organization. It is registered as a charity with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (CH2685200).
