MORRIS COUNTY FOOD PANTRY ACCEPTING THANKSGIVING DONATIONS

Parsippany, NJ:   The Interfaith Food Pantry (IFP) of Morris County is now accepting Thanksgiving food donations at their Pantry and Resource Center located at 2 Executive Drive, Morris Plains (in Central Park of Morris County). The IFP is seeking help from the public to help fulfill the 1,600 requests for turkeys and holiday meals they have received so far from their clients and from many other Morris County agencies.  Fresh and frozen turkeys, hams, chickens and other items such as stuffing, canned vegetables, roll mix, brownie or cake mix and icing, soups and shelf stable milk are being sought. The entire list of needed regular and holiday items as well as directions and hours of operation, can be found on the IFP website at www.mcifp.org. In addition to holiday food, regular food donations are also welcome since the Pantry distributes on average 1.7 tons of food per day to Morris County residents in need.

The IFP began distributing holiday food on November 2, thanks to early donations from several local companies. Kings Food Markets donated 250 turkeys so that clients who normally visit the Pantry early in the month could receive their holiday food during their regular visit. With the Kings donation plus turkeys that IFP purchased, the Pantry currently has about 800 on hand, which means at least another 800 will be needed before the month’s end.

Bags containing all the items needed to complete the meal were donated by Bayer and Novartis, who purchased enough supplies to pack 500 and 300 bags respectively and their employees assembled them during corporate events.

“We are really grateful to Kings, Bayer and Novartis for helping us get prepared for those who come during the first two weeks.  Now, we are working on putting together packages for everyone else and we’re still short of where we need to be to make sure everyone receives their holiday food,” said Carolyn Lake, Director of Community Relations and Development. In addition to turkeys and food, the IFP is also collecting supermarket gift cards and financial donations to purchase fresh produce and other items. “We are always sending shoppers out to purchase anything we run short on – our goal is to not turn anyone away”, she said.