GRACE in Action
By Mary Kane Tarashuk
In the 70’s, when I was a wide-eyed Kindergartener at Brayton School, I had a fascination with a building that stood adjacent to the school. This building was ominous and foreboding to my five-year-old self, its windows dark and sinister.
The mystery shrouded inside Cornog Field House at Soldiers Memorial Field stayed with me for decades. My thirties and forties were spent parking on Myrtle Avenue and glancing over at the structure, still amused by my childhood fears, as I pulled my chair out of the trunk to head to a baseball or softball game.
This life-long mystery was finally revealed just a few weeks ago. It happened by chance (or divine intervention). I wanted to drop off a food donation, to somehow “give back” to the community that raised me. I found GRACE while clicking around the Internet. Cornog Field House was identified as the drop-off location.
It’s embarrassing to admit that I still felt a little fearful approaching the building that first Thursday morning. It wasn’t the fear that I’d had as a child, the fear that some evil was lurking inside. It was the fear that my small contribution of oatmeal, body wash, and mac ‘n cheese just wasn’t enough.
With each step toward the bustling crowd, self-doubt began to dissipate. Smiling eyes greeted me from behind masks as I stepped over the threshold. It was then that I became aware of a very different feeling. It took a moment to recognize it. It was grace.
I have yet to encounter a definition for grace that can truly capture its enormity. But to witness grace in action, to feel its humble presence touch your heart, is something that can never be defined. But grace does exist. She greeted me at the door of Cornog Field House in the form of a masked stranger whose name is Amanda Block. Block is the founder of GRACE.
I would learn in the weeks that followed, that I’d walked into something much bigger than I’d imagined, that this tiny woman had created something that was making a huge impact. What started in 2016, as a series of Family Game Nights has grown into an organization that feeds between 400 and 500 local families each week.
GRACE stands for Giving and Receiving Assistance for our Community’s Essentials. It is also the name of Block’s daughter, who often works beside her. Early on a Thursday, you’ll find Amanda, along with fifteen to twenty other volunteers, bustling about in some sort of organized chaos.
To the right of the entrance, a mountain of partially filled, reusable shopping bags is piled against the wall, primed for an unintended avalanche. Past the precarious pile, a doorway leads to a smaller room where volunteers pick through crates full of fresh produce, delivered earlier via the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. Four hundred twenty-five half gallons of milk had already been dropped off by Springhouse Dairy, as well as four hundred dozen eggs from Pugliese Farms.
A volunteer named Amy holds a head of cauliflower in her hand, gently removing any bruised parts. I asked her how she got involved with GRACE “I was doing a lot of sitting around when the pandemic started. I guess I was just feeling fortunate that I was able to actually go to the grocery store,” she explains. “I came here to help. I had no idea what I was walking into.”
By the end of the morning, the avalanche of bags is transformed into the fifty pounds of weekly essentials each family will receive that evening, when cars line up around the corner in a now familiar procession of grace in action.
But grace doesn’t just happen on Thursdays. Each week, a lot happens out of the public eye. “It has become much more than produce, milk, bread, and eggs.” Block explains. Partnerships with Summit Schools, Literacy New Jersey, local restaurants and businesses, and a multitude of charitable foundations help identify the specific needs of the community. Block ticks off a short list of accomplishments. “Medical and dental check-ups, immigration advocacy, heavy boots for construction work, a costume for a school’s Halloween party.” The list is never-ending and always evolving.
There seems to be no limit to what Block thinks is possible. “GRACE is the assurance that together we will weather life’s storms and become healthier, happier, and more secure because of our community,” she beams. Then she flits away to greet someone else walking through the same door I’d walked through, just weeks before.
So, what can we, as a community, do to help? Perhaps Block, herself, is best-suited to answer that. “What GRACE needs from the community is the community itself. Volunteers are the force that keep our operations going.”
To learn more about being part of GRACE in action, visit https://www.gracegivingreceiving.org/
