(Courtesy of JFSCNJ) When JFSCNJ Executive Director Tom Beck got a call from Marian Marlowe, director of Local Partnerships from our Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ last week, he didn’t imagine that it would result in collecting $14,500 worth of groceries from Shop Fresh Marketplace in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

The store, which was going out of business, offered the JFSCNJ Charlotte Shak Kosher Food Pantry the opportunity to have a supermarket sweep that benefits our Food Pantry clients and the Tomchei Shabbos – Shabbat Packages Program. JFSCNJ Board Member and Tomchei Shabbos Co-Chair, Tara Speyer of Hillside, her family, Bracha Shechter (Tomchei Shabbos co-chair) and her daughter Sarah, and JFSCNJ staffers Danielle McLeer (director of Outreach & Volunteers), and Kathleen Fernandez (Food Pantry coordinator), quickly sprung into action, rented a U-Haul truck and went shopping.

Many thanks to Mike Gutkin, Parkade Partners, LLP, Tara, Eitan, Kayla and Daniella Speyer, Bracha and Sarah Shechter, Danielle McLeer, Kathleen Fernandez, and her friend Marc DeFeo, and sister Pat Convey, for all of their help.