A few months ago, I looked for an opportunity to make a civic contribution. I was introduced to Jennifer Williford, the dedicated executive director of Fisherman’s Mark. Although extremely busy running this multi-pronged organization, Jennifer spent two hours describing its many assorted activities.
Community outreach is an important part of the mission, including awareness of health issues like COVID; civic voting matters like voting in English and Spanish; social services including navigating state and federal aid; counseling to those in need of help on legal, disability, housing, childcare, medical care, rental assistance and ESL classes.
The Los Puentes (The Bridge) program provides training for the food industry, so important for the many, many restaurants in our area. The Lambertville Academy is a nationally accredited childhood learning center providing education in English and Spanish, including summer programming to assist working families.
Upon accepting my offer of services as a volunteer, Jen introduced me to the director of the Fisherman’s Mark Free Market, Ricardo Zapata.
As I am officially bilingual, Ricardo invited me to join his team of dedicated volunteers.
I am one of about a dozen volunteers at the Free Market. My colleagues are cheerful, friendly people who enjoy being of service to our clients. We treat them as regular shoppers and help them with their needs. No one is turned away.
Prior to opening each day, the volunteers are busy stocking the shelves with products which are stored in the warehouse. Their main work is then to fill shopping carts with our clients’ requests for frozen or canned meats, vegetables and fruits, household goods and toiletries. Meanwhile, our clients fill their own shopping bags, in a different area, with fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products, baked goods, animal foods, plus some small items of clothing and some children’s items.
My pleasure is to welcome our client guests in Spanish or English. If they have not visited Fisherman’s Mark, I give them a form in Spanish or English to complete. We inform them that they are entitled to come once a week for supplies. We also ask about family pets as we have pet food — clients can register up to four pets and are limited to use our pet pantry twice a month. We ask clients to fill out a new form annually.
Every time a client comes shopping, we ask the client to fill out a grocery list for our volunteers to fulfill. The list includes a wide variety of foods (over 100) as one might find in a grocery store. As an aside, we received frozen venison meat from the U.S.D.A., which did not move, because clients were not familiar with how to cook it. Once we had posted some recipes, the venison disappeared in a couple of days.
When shopping is completed, our volunteers like to help clients take their bags out to their cars. By the way, many do not have cars — some come by bicycle or walk, sometimes pushing a pram with their babies inside.
We have a wide variety of clients of all ages and backgrounds. There are some incredible stories, like the one of a recent Ecuadorian immigrant who came to join his family here. It took him two months to hike and hitch rides from his country up through Colombia, the treacherous Darien Gap in Panama, through all of Central America, Mexico and then the U.S., finally reaching Lambertville, N.J.
Then there were the three Cuban refugees who somehow found their way to Haiti and Nicaragua, before finally also hiking their way up here. It was winter and they were still wearing their tropical clothes. We were able to supply them with warm socks and gloves.
The U.S. should offer a true welcome to people with this type of initiative and a desire to work and integrate here.
Fisherman’s Mark has many generous donors, from supermarkets and bakeries to department stores, local farms and individuals who bring in produce, including eggs from their chicken and duck hatches.
It is a privilege to volunteer a few hours a week at this remarkable organization — Fisherman’s Mark.
John Seidler moved to Lambertville in 2021.
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