A Small Town Is Showing up for Their Residents in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Volunteers in East Newark, NJ are holding a food pantry every Wednesday to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Tatiana Da Costa
EAST NEWARK, NJ Dec. 8, 2020 — The COVID-19 pandemic has hit New Jersey hard, including one of its smallest borough of East Newark. Neighboring New Jersey’s largest city of Newark, the borough has faced one of the hardest times in its history. As numerous residents lose their jobs and their ability to provide for their families, volunteers rally together to help those in the community that are in need.
According to the 2018 census, East Newark has a total of 2,665 residents. For a borough that is 0.1 square miles, having such a high number of residents can be concerning during a pandemic. There are no more than 750 households that are housing all of the residents and most of the residencies are multi-family homes, which makes the spread of COVID-19 almost inevitable.
Since the start of the pandemic, East Newark’s positive COVID cases have continued to rise. Since March of 2020, more than 205 East Newark residents have tested positive for the virus and these numbers are increasing at a steady rate now that most of the world is in the second wave of COVID-19.
In late March, one of East Newark’s police officers started coming across a lot of families that were in need during his patrol of the borough and shared what he had seen with borough officials. This prompted Mayor Dina Grilo and the borough administration to start the East Newark food pantry.
“Between the administration, police, and fire departments, we knew this was a bad situation and something had to come out of it. I think it just accelerated our timeline to put a place in need.” — Mayor Dina Grilo
With the help of a number of volunteer residents and borough council members, the East Newark food pantry was up and running in early April. Since the Senior Citizen Center was closed down for the seniors because of the pandemic, the borough took advantage of the space and is now using it for their food pantry.
“We started off with just giving out food on Saturdays,” said Grettel Zuniga-Dasilva, who is in charge of the food pantry. “About two months into having the food pantry, we switched from having it on Saturday’s to having it on Wednesday’s.”
On Tuesday’s, a number of volunteers show up to the food pantry and assist in the making of food bags whenever boxes are not available. The bags include canned goods, proteins, snacks if they are available, and other necessities that might be needed. Other necessities might include baby food, formula
Wednesday’s are when residents can come in and pick up the food that is available. Volunteers, council members, and firefighters show up to the Senior Citizen Center and prepare for all of the residents that will be coming in. From 5:30pm to 7pm, East Newark residents line up outside and wait their turn to go in and receive their food box. While waiting in line, they need to be six feet apart from one another at all times and must wear a mask.
The food pantry is a big relief to some of East Newark’s residents and it’s an event that all of the volunteers enjoy participating in. Mayor Dina Grilo stated, “It’s a humbling experience for all of us.” The volunteers all range from council members and firefighters, to East Newark residents and residents from neighboring towns.
“I personally do it for the people. I love being able to help anyone in the community that is having a hard time right now. I do whatever I can to help those who need it.” — Carla Fernandes, East Newark Firefighter
The East Newark administration would love to continue to provide food to their residents in need through the food pantry, but a lot of that depends on how many donations they continue to receive from others. To help the food pantry, East Newark has set up a food-drive for people to drop off food and toys to the food pantry parking lot on December 19–20. They are hoping this will help them keep the food drive around for as long as some residents are in need of food.