St. John the Apostle Food Pantry 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 1993 – 2018

Recently St. John the Apostle Food Pantry celebrated its 25th Anniversary.  Its original founder, Jean Murphy, a former SJA 1ST GRADE Teacher, started a very small pantry for 30 of her neighbors in 1993, in her hometown of Winfield Park.  Since Jean was already in her eighties, she engaged the services of her sister Rosarian and parishioner Mary Ann Fiorillo.  Mary Ann became Director of the Food Pantry in 1995 and continues after 23 years.
With the assistance of many dedicated volunteers, and the support of Mary Ann’s family, including her husband Tony, the Pantry has grown four new programs, including distributions to infants through senior citizens. Open year round the pantry distributes anywhere from 500 to 650 participants monthly.  In addition to the church location, there are two satellite programs to accommodate clients; one at the Winfield location and another at the Clark Municipal Building.
We are grateful to our most generous donors within the parish who have enabled us to care for so many in need. We appreciate our membership in the Community Food Bank in Hillside who is our greatest provider of government programs, and provide us with grants from the ShopRite Corp. Our local schools, St. John’s, St. Agnes’, Mother Seton, & Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark provide food collections to us throughout the year, as well as our parish Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies, Girl Scouts, and CCD classes. Catholic Charities also provides us with periodic non-perishables.
A unique feature, most appreciated by our clients, is the inclusion of “special giveaways” and goodies on all major holidays throughout the year. Also, brand new, fully loaded bookbags and typical school supplies are distributed to our school age students at the start of the school year.
We, again, thank all for your support in helping us fight hunger in our local area. Check donations to St. John the Apostle Food Pantry may be forwarded to the Church Rectory in Linden, attn. FOOD PANTRY. For more information please call the Pantry 732-388-1216.