Building Residents Raise Money, Collect Donations For North Jersey Food Pantry

The residents of Mediterranean West in Fort Lee were invited to a pool party Saturday evening. The price of admission: two cans of food.

The third annual pool party at the building on North Ave. provided the opportunity for residents of the co-op to mingle with and meet their neighbors, but also served as a fundraiser for the Center for Food Action in Englewood.

Residents were asked simply to bring two cans of food, but many brought much more, including full bags of groceries and checks for $50 or more, said president of the co-op’s board of directors Andrea Hersh.

“To us, [the food] is your admission ticket in,” Hersh said. “Last year in money alone we collected about $1,000, but we also fed over 100 families for a month with the food donations.”

Hersh said this year’s fundraising goal was simple: to top last year’s total. She also said the building is the only one in the community that holds such a fundraiser, but that she’d like to challenge others to follow Med West’s lead.

“It’s a dare,” Hersh said. “Come on; one up us. If it means we could feed more families, I’d be thrilled.”

By the end of the evening, which included a DJ, food and refreshments and raffles for more than 30 donated items with tickets going for $1 apiece, organizers had collected about $1,550—well in excess of last year’s total—and filled 18 full-sized grocery carts with bags of food for the center, said Fort Lee Councilwoman and Med West resident since 1988 Ila Kasofsky.

“This is about giving and helping on a local level,” Kasofsky said. “And I think that’s what we’re all here for—to help each other. I’m thrilled that we can do this. The shelves are bare [at food pantries], and Thanksgiving is coming up sooner than you realize. I’m begging everybody to do something in the spirit of local helping.”

Hersh pointed out Saturday that if all 507 apartments in the building participated and other buildings started similar traditions of their own, the results would be far-reaching.

“It would nice if everyone did it,” she said. “The food pantries would never be empty, would they? If you get two cans of food from every apartment, that’s a lot of food.”

Hersh also said she was grateful to all the “amazing people who contribute to us for the raffles.”

“Every local restaurant we go into, [for example], In Napoli, It’s Greek to Me, Red Oak Diner, Johnny’s Pizza—we have an endless list here—all we have to do is say we’re doing a party for the benefit of the center, and we get stacks of gift certificates,” she said.

In July, The Bergen Record reported that huge funding cuts had left severe shortages at food pantries in North Jersey. But according to The Center for Food Action, the number of people in need of emergency food has been on the rise this summer, with as many as 75 families a day coming through its doors.

Hersh hopes the donation from Saturday’s fundraiser helps alleviate at least some of that burden.

“By the time the food goes out there, I’d say we fed a lot of families,” she said.