Volunteers working every weekend for over year to ensure neighborhood stays well fed
By Natasha Brown
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CAMDEN, New Jersey (KYW) — A group of volunteers in Camden has been working every Friday and Saturday for well over a year to make sure the neighborhood is fed.
It is pickup day at the Food Bank of South Jersey for this team of volunteers. They load box after box and transport it from Pennsauken Township to St. Wilfrid’s Church in Camden.
“It is God’s work, all of it,” Norman Valentine, a volunteer, said.
Inside the church, Valentine coordinates the food pantry at the Open Door Clinic.
“People just don’t have the funds to continue living the way they lived so they come here,” Valentine said.
For more than 70 weeks, Valentine and volunteers from St. Wilfrid’s, Grace Church Haddonfield, and First Presbyterian Church, have been packing food every Friday, nonperishables and more.
“They get rice, canned vegetables, canned soups,” Valentine said.
“We have some fresh food we produce that comes in from misfit produce,” Paul Urian, another volunteer, said.
Each week, more than 100 bags are filled with 25 pounds of food.
“Partnering with the Food Bank has really kept us sustained,” Rose Guthrie, a volunteer with the First Presbyterian Church, said. “We get donations from volunteers, but if we didn’t have the Food Bank, we wouldn’t be here for over 70 some weeks.”
“This a great place to work because it’s not just about packing bags,” Urian said. “This is about treating people like human beings.”
Valentine said the Open Door Clinic will always have his help.
“As long as I have the life and the energy and as long as there’s a need,” Valentine said.
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