St. Joseph’s Social Service Center thanks rotary club
Rotary Club of Westfield
Bernadette Murphy, Executive Director of the St. Joseph’s Social Service Center in Elizabeth recently thanked the Rotary Club of Westfield for all of their support through the years. It was especially difficult for St. Joe’s to feed their 822 registered families throughout the Covid pandemic, and the members of the Westfield Rotary Club stepped up to help.
St. Joe’s only has four full-time employees,10 part-time employees, and many volunteers. Service organizations throughout Union County, including school children in Westfield, along with other volunteers provide a stream of much needed help and food to the center. In addition, they are partially supported by the government through the Community Food Bank located in Hillside, NJ.
The food program was started in 1983 by Benedictine Sister Jacinta Fernandez, who is now 88 years old. Sister Jacinta ran the program for 32 years before retiring. The operation was run in a separate building adjacent to the Church. In 1986, St. Joseph’s Parish Church shut down, and they moved the growing program there. Every year they distribute 1 million pounds of food, from which three quarters comes from the Community Food Bank. St. Joe’s serves mostly families with children, but also seniors in need.
And that’s not all they do. They have run their soup kitchen every Saturday since 1983 without missing a single week, even throughout the pandemic. St Joe’s gives out sandwiches every day to anyone who asks, gives a bag of food to each of their 800 families every month, offers health services, gives vouchers to help pay for prescriptions, provides fresh produce and dairy, offers mental health counseling, provides school supplies, and summer camp. In addition, they provide clothing and toys, and run an Adult Learning Center, and job center.
The Westfield Rotary Club Foundation provided St. Joe’s with a $4,000 grant to help with their capital campaign. St. Joe’s needs to raise $1.4 million to renovate their structures to provide better services and have a better traffic flow. They have raised most of the funds and are only $130,000 short of their goal. The construction will take two years to complete. They will phase the construction so they may continue to provide services during the construction.
St. Joe’s motto is: “If you want to touch the past, touch a stone. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life.”
St Joe’s is a 501c3 corporation. For more information visit sjeliz.org.
The Rotary Club of Westfield meets the first three Tuesdays of each month for lunch at noon, at Limani Seafood Grill on North Ave. Guests are always welcome. For information check out the website westfieldrotary.com or contact club secretary Dr. D. Michael Hart by email at drmhart@yahoo.com.
