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We have that chance now, at a time when a brutal economy and relentless floods have made the neediest even more vulnerable.
Now that the 20th annual Action Against Hunger Food Drive is over, the need continues.
The seeds of the movement began nearly four decades ago with Chapin and Father Bill Ayers, through what they dubbed World Hunger Year New Jersey. Although the intent was to address world hunger, Chapin said he and his colleagues quickly discovered a tremendous need right here.
Thus was born the now-35-year-old Center for Food Action, an unwavering, determined organization of volunteers dedicated to “preventing hunger and homelessness and improving the lives of individuals and families living in poverty.” The CFA provides emergency food packages, rental and utility assistance, counseling, advocacy and other essential services to the North Jersey needy.
Before long, countless organizations and individuals were pitching in — among them, the Free Masons, various Rotaries, Elks and other clubs, even Bergen County government.
“Through its main and satellite food pantries, CFA offers a lifeline to people in our communities who are in desperate need of food and other basic survival items,” said Dr. Miriam Tausner of the Rotary Club of the Palisades, one of the drive’s participants.
North Jersey Media Group, the parent company of the Bergen Record, soon became the standard bearer. The parking lot of its former headquarters in Hackensack (the operations are now in Woodland Park) became a central drop-off in the region.
The drive last year produced 65 tons of food, valued at more than $360,000, for the area needy. The goal this year: 100 tons.
Supplies already were dwindling as civic groups and religious organizations that ordinarily contribute the most to the center slowed down this summer. Then came the hurricane, the floods and an increased need at the organization’s seven Bergen County sites (there’s also one in Passaic County).
That’s were WE come in. Here’s a list of Food Drop-off Locations
The most needed items include: Canned meat and fish, canned hearty soup and vegetables, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, jellies, and jams, as well as baby food and formula, diapers (sizes: 4, 5 & 6), and pull-ups, bar soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes. Powdered or evaporated milk, cold cereal, and oatmeal help.
Paper goods are also in demand, as well as low-sugar and low-sodium foods. Please don’t bring anything in glass.
If there’s one thing volunteers at the center are quite skilled at, it’s stretching a dollar: In fact, every $1 donated can produce $8 worth of groceries through grants and discount shopping.
So supermarket gift cards are great – as are checks, of course.
You can send a tax-deductible donation to: The Center for Food Action, 192 West Demarest Ave., Englewood, NJ 07631
Or go to: www.cfanj.org
(Please mention CLIFFVIEW PILOT when donating).
And keep an eye out at your local supermarket — Stop & Shop, Pathmark, A&P and ShopRite, among them. They are also accepting donations of all kinds.
Harry Chapin would have been proud of what’s being accomplished. Although he’s best known for two of the most popular story-songs of our time, “Taxi” and “Cats in the Cradle” (written by his wife, Sandy), the raspy-voiced, disheveled balladeer preferred attention be paid to helping feed the hungry. In his organization’s early years, he single-handedly raised more than $5 million.
We met in January 1981, just days before he played what would be an historic and memorable 2,000th concert, at what was then the legendary Bottom Line. He greeted me warmly, enfolding my palm with both hands, like a catcher snatching a foul pop, then pulled me toward him ever so slightly — a warm, welcoming signal that there were no walls, no boundaries.
Our lives can be measured, he said that day in a Manhattan record company side room, by juxtaposing “current realities against past hopes [and] future potentials.”
It’s that potential that constantly drove Chapin to help others. He did an equal number of benefit concerts as he did his own shows — “one for me, one for the other guy,” he said. His goal was always a better tomorrow for those without one to look forward to. Through his music, he believed he could “sensitize rather than propagandize.”
Through sheer force of will, he mounted a one-man lobbying effort that in 1978 established the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. He deliberately placed himself in a line of socially conscious artists that included Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. When I asked about his dreams, in fact, Chapin said he wanted to write the next “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
That wasn’t to happen. Six months after we met, he was killed, at 38, when his car was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on the Long Island Expressway.
His work continues: Countless people working with the Center for Food Action and other charities, are carrying it on, whether they know it or not.
Harry would’ve wanted it that way. Although I told him an average Joe like me couldn’t possibly have the effect he did, Chapin vehemently disagreed. No matter what part we play, we can improve someone else’s life, he said.
“You can change the world just as much as I can,” he insisted. “Anything is possible, if you believe strongly enough in it.
“I’m willing to dream …. Aren’t you?”
A sampling of some of the drop-off points: Edgewater:
Public Library, 49 Hudson Avenue
Edgewater Community Center, 1167 River Road
Independence Harbor (Clubhouse waiting room), 361 River Road
Trader Joe’s, 715 River Road
Leonia:
Public Library, 227 Fort Lee Road
NVE Bank, 310 Broad Avenue
PNC Bank, 353 Broad Avenue
Palisades Park:
Public Library, 257 Second Street
PNC Bank, 264 Broad Avenue
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