SERVPRO Helps to Feed Hundreds

4/29/2021 (Permalink)

SERVPRO employees, Minerva Alvarado and Harold Lapp, Jr. with CFBNJ Christina and Marcus Weaver, Director of Agriculture, GCAP.

Local SERVPRO Helps To Feed Hundreds During National Volunteer Week.

SERVPRO of Cape May & Cumberland Counties (“SERVPRO”) participated in National Volunteer Week 2021 by volunteering for Gateway Community Action Partnership (“GCAP”) at their Gleaning Project/Food Pantry Center in Bridgeton.

Minerva Alvarado, SERVPRO’s Marketing Development Coordinator and member of the Gateway Board of Directors, organized the volunteer effort with Mayor Albert Kelly and Marcus Weaver, GCAP Director of Agriculture & Food Initiatives. 

Volunteering with Minerva, were members of the SERVPRO Business Development team: Colleen Ayala, Harold Lapp, Jr. and David Brace. Together they volunteered for eight hours over two days. In that short time, the Center was able to provide food for 200 families (600 individuals).

The Center obtains food from multiple sources: The Community Food Bank of New Jersey (“CFBNJ”), donations from local stores including: ShopRite, Aldi, Walmart, Lidl and Target, and from other nonprofits like Sysco. In season, produce is donated by local farms, the Vineland Produce Auction and the Mill Creek Urban Farm. When extra food is available, the Center will deliver door-to-door to Bridgeton Housing Authority sites as well as the Good Shepherd Dining Hall at St. Theresa’s Church in Bridgeton, Spirit and Truth Ministries in Vineland and to 115 seniors at the Spring Gardens complex in Bridgeton. The Center also donates to dozens of other local food pantries, including WIC Programs, Head Start Centers and Family Success Centers throughout the area.

Denise Hladun and Christina Faulk from the CFBNJ stopped in to meet everyone. “Our office is in Egg Harbor Township, but Gateway is one of our clients and I wanted to introduce myself and meet the employees and volunteers,” said Denise Hladun, Director of External Affairs. “We like to support our clients and help them find volunteers.”

Bridgeton Mayor Kelly also stopped by to greet the employees and volunteers and stayed to help and was the first to push carts filled with food packages out to cars waiting to be loaded up. “We are here to help and provide food to residents in need,” said Mayor Kelly. “This mission is important and special to me.” The Center was just short of distributing one million pounds of food in 2020.

GCAP’s Food Distribution Days fall on the last full week of each month on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am to 2pm each day. If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact Marcus Weaver, mweaver@gatewaycap.org or 856-392-4195 (Spanish is a plus!)!

“It’s a real pleasure to have Minerva and our Business Development Team on board wanting to volunteer, especially during National Volunteer Week. All together, we volunteer for every chamber of commerce in Cape May and Cumberland Counties as well as Tri-county Rotary, M25, and The Salvation Army Vineland Corps. We care about the communities where we live and work – this is just one way to do our part to show local residents that SERVPRO cares,” said Barbara Stafford-Jones, owner of SERVPRO of Cape May & Cumberland Counties.