Hopewell Valley Mobile Food Pantry (HVMFP) celebrates five years of helping families facing food insecurity.
With that Valley municipalities issued proclamations to honor the milestone. Pennington issued their proclamation at a Borough Council meeting on April 7.
Hopewell Township issued their proclamation on March 17, and Hopewell Borough issued a proclamation on April 3.
“When we started this, we thought we would be up and running for about 90 days,” said Joe Lawver, director of the Hopewell Valley Mobile Food Pantry and former Pennington mayor, at the Pennington Council meeting on April 7. “In the early days, we served about 35 families a week.
“This week we will pack bags for 230 families. So, we have grown exceptionally over that time.”
People were addressing food insecurity in Hopewell Valley for a long time on an individual basis, Lawver said.
“Now the Hopewell Valley Mobile Food Pantry is an opportunity for the community to address (food insecurity) in a more unified consistent fashion,” he said. “The people we are serving they are your neighbors, this being Pennington and knowing where most of you live, I can literally tell you that there are neighbors within 10 houses of you that we are serving.
“These people are hiding in plain sight. They are struggling to stay in their homes. Most of them are seniors (60%).”
“They are struggling with rising property taxes, fixed-incomes, rising Medicare costs, etc. This is an opportunity for us to help them.”
HVMFP not only provides the general staple groceries people typically receive, but they also provide families with a 10-pound bag of fresh produce each week.
“… A couple of years ago, we had a 95-year-old World War II veteran that we were serving, and he came down with COVID,” Lawver said. “At that point in time COVID for that age group was pretty much the end of the line.
“He went into the hospital, and we did not expect him to come back. Four weeks later he came back and his family attributes his ability to fight [COVID due to] the improved diet he had because he was using so many fruits and vegetables from us.”
Staple items provided by the pantry include whole grain cereal, low sodium soup, low sodium canned chicken, flour, sugar, peanut butter, canned fruit in juice, and healthy kids’ snacks. Additionally, they provide cleaning products, and personal care products.
Lawver welcomes anyone who has time to get involved and volunteer.
People are able to donate perishable and non-perishables at the donation location for the mobile food pantry at the Hopewell Valley Regional School District Administration building on 425 South Main St. in Pennington.
The HVMFP was established and launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic through a collaboration between the Hopewell Regional School District (HVRSD), Hopewell YMCA, and the valley municipalities and communities.
For more information on the Hopewell Valley Mobile Food Pantry and donation times, days, location, visit www.hvymca.org/pantry/.
