An unprecedented year of political division and pandemic has ended locally with pay-it-forward giving and hope.
For the first time in its 65-year history, the Delaware Valley Food Pantry fed a new kind of hunger that has been especially acute in a year of job losses and unexpected financial hardships on local families – gifts from Santa.
Burt Johnson, president of the board of directors at the food pantry, said that the effort grew out of a response to the generosity of an anonymous donor. The DVFP, which normally focuses solely on providing food and nutrition, suddenly found itself organizing a toy drive.
Johnson said that the idea began with the organization’s social media representative and webmaster Evelyn Inoue. She was contacted by a philanthropist who was looking to anonymously donate about 100 toys.
A toy collection at John and Peter’s in New Hope was also organized. But there were more toys to distribute as more were being donated. The employees of Q-Nation and Strongarm Designs in Horsham also contributed to the event by providing over 100 toys to the pantry’s effort, including three bicycles.
While the pantry, located in Village Square Mall in Lambertville, was only open two days a week, neighboring Popcorn Packers decided to set up a gift collection box to collet toys for the pantry.
Eventually, 86 families signed up for gifts with DVFP. A list of over 150 children including their gift wishes was tabulated. Several of the toys featured new bicycles purchased with funds donated specifically for bikes. The age of the children ranged from infants to 17 years, and the teenagers received gift cards as well.
But when the giving started, more giving followed. As a masked Santa (Felix Ciatterelli) appeared at the pantry in the bed of a black GMC pickup, later joined by Mrs. Claus (Lauren Speis) and three elves (played by high school students from Flemington), several shoppers at the strip mall who saw what was happening asked if they could contribute as well.
Community giving turned a hundred gifts into a thousand.
And it did not stop there. A donation of 60 boxed taco and chip lunches to the volunteers by Jack Egoavil Gomez, owner of Lambertville’s El Tule restaurant, added to the spirit of giving. But the volunteers who received those lunches in turn handed them to the families at the toy drive. At the end of the day, as if by karmic math, DVFP was left with a remainder of precisely two unclaimed lunches, which they gave to Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Since its founding in 1955, DVFP has been primarily focused on its mission of providing food for those in need. Serving roughly 2,500 people, the pantry has seen a 25% increase in clients in the first half of 2020, outpacing any 6-month period in its history. 2020 is the first year the organization has addressed another need: providing holiday gifts for the children.
Additional funds donated to the pantry will be used to purchase more gift cards for the families. Both McCaffery’s and Giant grocery stores have donated food to DVFP, and both allow customers to round up their purchase at the register to give to local pantries.
McCaffrey’s roundup specifically targets DVFP, while Giant’s roundup drive is directed to regional food banks and other local pantries, including Fisherman’s Mark, also in Lambertville.
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