Volunteers handed out meals to more than 2,000 families at Kean University in Union. (Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media)
Updated Nov 29, 2020; Posted Nov 29, 2020
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
Here, in one of the wealthiest states in the United States of America, about 2,500 families waited in an hours-long line at Kean University last Saturday, just for a Thanksgiving meal to go. It’s like this across New Jersey. Pantries are seeing double or triple the demand since COVID hit: Cars backed up by the hundreds at some sites, starting before dawn.
“Every other family is folks we are seeing for the first time,” says Carlos Rodriguez, the CEO of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, which stocks more than 1,000 pantries, kitchens and shelters in 16 counties.
The number of New Jerseyans with unsteady access to food is expected to spike by as much as 56 percent by the end of this year, his group reports, and it’s even more startling in children: A 75 percent increase. That’s a bigger surge than in the country overall, or neighboring states like New York and Pennsylvania, likely because Atlantic City alone has lost so many jobs in bars, restaurants, hotels and casinos.
The New Jersey Restaurant and Hospitality Association estimates between 65 and 70 percent of these folks are still unemployed. So are many of the people we once relied on to care for our kids, clean our homes or fix our roads.
If you’ve been lucky enough to avoid these bread lines, to keep a roof over your head and be hooked up for virtual school, think of them on “Giving Tuesday,” and consider chipping in with all your might. Many can’t afford other essentials either, from diapers to rent. Now’s the time to dig deep.
“Things are bad for tenants now,” says Cathy Keenan of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice. “But all of us who do this work are like, ‘Oh my god, it’s going to be so much worse.”
—
President Trump and Congress have failed to replace a $600-a-week pandemic unemployment program that ended in July, or make up for the loss of school meals when many schools closed, or agree on a new round of coronavirus relief.
So the more than 1.2 million New Jerseyans who don’t have enough to eat in this pandemic – including nearly 400,000 children – have been left to rely on local nonprofits.
Those groups are gearing up not just to help people cope today, but to brace for the prolonged suffering to come. “Even if things go back to normal and we get the vaccine, the food need continues on for years,” says Suzanne Brown of the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, pointing to the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
This fund, founded by the governor’s wife, Tammy Murphy, has handed out $34 million since COVID hit, to help build up the capacity of local charities. With big cash donations, they can purchase more food in bulk and get it out faster.
On top of the people they regularly serve, even students and former professionals are now seeking out food or cash assistance.
Like Kimberly Morin of Sussex County, a court reporter for many years. She had to quit as she got older, she says, due to her physical ailments: Fibromyalgia, diabetes and back problems that now require surgery. Then the childcare center where she worked closed due to COVID.
“I spent day after day after day trying to call unemployment. It was horrible, absolutely horrible,” she said.
She had no real savings and doesn’t know what she would have done in those first few months, if not for the help she got from the United Way of Northern New Jersey, among others. “I’m not the type of person who likes to depend on people,” she said, then added: “Believe me, I was so grateful.”
—
The unemployment benefits she’s now receiving will run out come January, a common predicament. Many people lining up for help are on the brink of homelessness, and we can’t hold that off forever by just banning evictions, as the governor did with his moratorium.
Landlords aren’t getting the money they need. The eviction cases they file are likely to number in the hundreds of thousands, advocates predict. Think about the human toll of evicting that many people, all at once.
“It’s going to be a disaster, quite honestly,” says Keenan of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice.
While the majority of landlords have lawyers, 98 percent of tenants do not. Groups like Legal Services of New Jersey do great work, but won’t be able to meet this overwhelming need without an army of reinforcements, says Keenan, who recruits and trains volunteers from established lawyers to law students.
One recent case that comes to mind is a tenant in Morris County with two adult children, she says, who both lost their jobs due to COVID. The landlord can’t evict them yet, but did refuse to fix their faulty stove or restore their hot water.
“The tenants tried to boil water, the oven had a gas leak, and everyone required medical attention for carbon monoxide poisoning,” Keenan said. “That’s exactly what happens. It’s one thing after another thing.”
—
Sometimes the breaking point is childcare and virtual schooling.
More districts are going all-virtual now, given the rising rates of infection in their communities. Yet an appalling 35,000 students statewide still don’t have the laptop or Wifi they need, the Department of Education just reported.
In East Orange, for instance, more than 6,000 students lack the necessary equipment. And for some families, even that won’t be enough to bridge the so-called digital divide, says Vicky Hernandez, head of the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) in Newark.
“They might have gotten the device, but don’t know how to get it to work,” she explains. “It’s a barrier if you have a low education level, if you don’t speak the language. It’s a barrier if your biggest concern of the day is, how am I going to make a living, how am I going to put food on the table? The stress of poverty, frankly.”
In Newark, where school buildings remain closed, a single mother’s only option may be to go clean houses and leave her 8-year-old child behind. In such cases, Hernandez’s group steps in. They operate a remote learning site with classrooms of 10 to 12 kids and an adult leader.
Sometimes, they even foot the bill for kids to participate, when their parents haven’t been able to secure childcare subsidies from the state. Those who are immigrants here illegally are afraid to seek them out, even though they qualify. Others can’t get the necessary documentation, like a day laborer at a different work site every day, who earns cash wages.
But for their children at risk of falling behind, it can make all the difference. “We started the last week of September, and school had been running for 3 weeks,” Hernandez said. “Several had not been logging in with frequency. Some had not logged in at all.”
—
These groups we talked to are just some of the bigger, better known players working to help victims of the pandemic in New Jersey. But there are little food pantries and volunteer efforts all over the place that are also worth donating to. Call your local mayor, or school district, or just ask Google. Give whatever you can spare. You won’t regret it.
The New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund
Community Food Bank of New Jersey
United Way of Northern New Jersey
Ironbound Community Corporation
SOURCE ARTICLE: https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/11/on-giving-tuesday-dont-forget-your-own-neighbors-editorial.html?fbclid=IwAR1HQb9D4wwC_edpUCrl-bN9q1O6sBU78_eyiMBWRAKAjiEkLAQel-JhTRM