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News 12 Staff

127spotlightnj2_2024-12-07-09-39-51

Hunger, free unity in the community is based in Bayonne. They are trying to help the problem of food insecurity here in New Jersey, which is a very serious issue. Stephanie Glover Wilson is the founder and President Rich Cooper is treasurer Charlie Kaczynski works donor relations. Now, in the last segment you mentioned, you have the only traveling food pantry in this county. Yes, ma'am. We have the only uh traveling food pantry in Hudson County and it started because of COVID. Um when COVID hit, you know, seniors were afraid to leave their homes. So a lot of parents still live in Bayona Hudson County and kids moved away. So some kind of way my number was on Facebook and people just started calling me and saying, if I give you my mother's address, send you some money. Can you please go take my mother some food? She's afraid to come outside. I was like, we don't need no money. We got food. And so we started to all the senior buildings, we would make bags and we would get all the kids together. We would go door to door, knock on the door. We, we'll tell them to stay in the apartment, we'll just knock and then we'll leave and then they will get the food. So that's how it started. And then the mayor Harrison New Jersey caught me because one of my coworkers lived in Harrison and he's like, I need your help. How can you help us? And then we started traveling from different cities, um, through Hudson County to give people food during COVID and you will also help during a hurricane. Yes, we did. We had to, um, go underneath the Bayonne bridge in Bayonne. Um, we, I talked to Commissioner Bill o'dea and um, uh, county exec, Craig guy to get special permission to go underneath the, uh turnpike extension and we set up the trucks and the food and then people met us there because that was the safest place and people had to eat. How did you get out the word that you all would be doing that? Um, Facebook, word of mouth, Instagram, um neighbors because if you tell one neighbor that team is gonna tell another neighbor, then we have, we have a group of people that actually follow us. They call pool. Um, they, they met each other online and if one person can't get, they'll, they'll work up together and save money and they'll, they'll just come to each location and meet us. People must love that you have that. Go ahead, Charlie. I was just gonna say we do this 52 weeks. A year every week. And the reason we do that always in outdoor locations, uh county parks, city parks, church parking lots, school parking lots, we do that because food insecurity never takes a holiday. Our dedicated team of volunteers, we are out there on holiday weekends because folks really do need the help and the need is growing.

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127spotlightnj3_2024-12-07-12-19-39

As you can see by this beautiful logo that I have here. Hunger free unity in the community based in Bayonne. They are my guests today. Stephanie Glover Wilson is founder and President Rich Cooper is Treasurer Charlie Kaczynski works donor relations. As we ended our last segment, you were saying that it's hard to take your volunteers out and you feel bad. I do feel bad on holidays um because they were be with their family too, but they see the need of Hudson County. So I do feel bad sometimes when there's a holiday weekend and I bring them out the house. But like Uncle Charlie said, we're out 52 weeks a year. We don't take a break and we're in the cold. We're not indoors, we're outdoors in the element. And obviously they want to be out there with you. And I always ask them why because I don't understand it sometimes but i it because if we don't do it, who will and if we have to work together, but because you won't care, they wanna join you and help and you have a new storefront too. Yes. We have a new um, storefront that um we opened up about eight months ago. So um Alliance Health care Center, they come out twice a month and they do health screenings on our seniors and our veterans. And then we have um the, the Welfare Department for Hudson County. Thanks to um Craig Guy and Frank Basler. They sent a AAA representative out on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 2 to help um our community with food stamps applications, Medicaid applications and housing. If they need help in housing and any of those services like that, let's talk about the power of your partnerships homer free would be lost without the excellent partners that we have warehouses, a key trucking firm, corporate food donors and even other nonprofit organizations with the help of our key trucking company uh partner. We're able to move incredible amounts of food to the places that you know, we distribute and we have the ability to move 18 wheeler tractor trailer loads and if need be refrigerate that food. So that when we do distribute a couple of days later that we are providing the most nutritious and freshest food for the folks that we serve. Where do you all get this food? This food comes from corporate donors and we have key corporate donors that um regularly interact with us. Honestly, the amount of food can vary. So to the extent that it's possible anybody that's listening to is broadcast if they have any type of uh food donations we have our own truck and we have the support of a trucking firm so that we can go pick that food up and make sure it gets to where it's supposed to go without waste.

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128spotlightnj4_2024-12-08-09-32-25

Hunger, free unity in the community based in Bayonne is doing a lot to help with the issue of food and security. Here in New Jersey, we have Stephanie Rich and Charlie here in studio. I want you all to talk about the fact that along with nourishing people, you also help empower them and why that's important. Yes. One of the things that our new storefront enables us to do is have health screenings to, to have people screen for hypertensive hypertension and also those that may be pre diabetic checking sugar levels. What we even do is have our partner Alliance Health provide free coupons for mammograms in the in the various facilities in Hudson County. So you also meet their health needs as well because that's kind of a by product of being food insecure and not being able to get access to the healthy foods they need to eat. That's correct. What we're looking at is really a holistic view. And in addition to that, we have uh our Hudson County Health and Human Services folks that come to our office a couple of days a week to help people sign up for those critical benefits like snap and wick and together that really helps empower people to be able to improve their lives along with the food that we're supplying. At one point, we even did a financial security um seminar in the office to give people a better understanding of how they can manage their expenses. Financial. Wow, they must have enjoyed that. Um I, I'll be honest, I have really good partners with h, with a lot of, um Hudson County vendors. Um So when I make a phone call or a light bulb pops into my head to bring something to our town, I will call out and trust me, they will, they do deliver. So I am very um happy and, and satisfied with all our partners that we have, we have really good partners and you sound like you're well connected. I am. Um And I like to thank my mother Florence Holmes for that. Please tell us about her. She's here in the studio. She's Florence Holmes. Um I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for my mother. Um I do the things because that's what she taught me to do. I was volunteering when I was five years old and, and my kids do the same, but my mother had made, my mother makes good contacts with good people and then we all just work together. But between our Rotarian club and um hunger free and the county exec and Jersey City and Harrison like we have really good people that will help us out and get things done and I really appreciate everybody that puts their foot forward to help us.

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128spotlightnj5_2024-12-08-09-33-41

This is one alarming statistic, the USDA and hunger free America say 801,000 New Jerseyans lived in food insecure households from 2020 to 2022. 11.5% are Children, 7.2% are employed adults. 7.10% of older New Jersey residents are affected. My guests here are with hunger, free unity in the community. What kind of help do you need from the public? So, um well, we have different fundraisers and that's where uh pop cooper come, comes in. That that's his department. Yes. Yes. We're, we're very well known as Hunger Free Union and Community. But it's anything but free. It's um we have uh office expenses, insurance, utilities down to diesel for the trucks and changing the tires, insurance on the trucks. We're constantly doing fundraisers. Uh We have a yearly gala in October. That's a, a major help to us to get us through to late March or April and then come March or April. I'm out there trying to scrounge figuring out how to pay the bills and always looking for donations, always looking for ways to raise money, uh suggestions. Um Even it doesn't necessarily have to be money. People could donate their time, they could donate uh storage facilities, they could donate an idea. They can just anything that can come forward to help get the food out to the people that need it the most. How can they contact you to find out what they can do? Well, we have uh all social media platform is open. We have our office which is located at 170 Broadway in Bayonne, New Jersey and then our number is uh 5512419468. We also have some residents in Bayonne um when a loved one pass away instead of them going to buy flowers or uh do something, we, we're getting a lot of donations in their name so we can feed families in that love person's name. Um Our gala was based on we lost a really dear um volunteer which was Mr Phil. Um Him and my mother were really good friends. So we, our gala is a tribute to everyone that we lost. So all the awards are named after the volunteers that used to volunteer with us that passed away. So it was Mr Phil, my husband which is Jason Wilson um Gail Verde, which was one of my good godmothers um uh Dorothy who donate the truck to us. Her mother Rose is a, is a award named after her and we just wanna keep those names alive. In the, in the community and with us. So we do that gala every year.

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128spotlightnj6_2024-12-08-12-21-14

We talked about Miss Florence Mama Holmes earlier here on Spotlight New Jersey and she's here now with me. Isn't she beautiful? I want you to tell me how special this organization is to you. Thank you very much, Adela. I looked at you. I look at you every morning. This is a very special organization because we are here to help people. My mom taught me this as a child and I taught my kids my grandkids, I start them at five. They have to learn to give back and they have to learn chess so they could be better people in the world and any time any place I'm needed, I'm there. And I just, and they love it and I just thank God for being in a position to help people because that's what we're put on this earth for. We are responsible for everybody on this earth. My mom always tell us that and I truly believe that. And these people here, they're like family. They are like a kale pop cooper. You know, their kids call me grandma and ma and we just love each other. There's nothing we wouldn't do for each other. Nothing and we're talking about hunger, free unity in the community. You were talking about a tricky trade that you all used to help raise money. Yes. Um, all nonprofits have a big gala every year and we have to dress up and get stockings and dresses and get your hair done. We want to be different. So, uh, it's a t-shirt jean gala. Come in a TSH and jeans because that's what we're comfortable with And that's what we do all day and the money that you spend on that dress, you can just donate to us or buy tickets to win prizes. It, it made more sense. And then the whole premise behind is that we're remembering our loved ones that passed away that will always keep them in our heart. And I, I thank my volunteers for giving me the ability to do it because if it wasn't for them, 100 and 10% volunteer organization, if it wasn't for these guys that come out every day, especially on Saturday mornings, I wouldn't know what I would do. And you never thought too Charlie. Yeah. You know what our vision for the future really is that no one should be hungry. No one should go to bed hungry and no one should be looking for their next meal. That's where we come in and we do it in a way that creates the extension of that family for the people we are serving. We do it with dignity. We do it with compassion, we do it to make them feel good about the transaction. And while it may seem like an insurmountable task, we think that the help of everyone that interacts with us, we can really make that happen. It's not something that's out of reach in the future. We plan on having a bigger location that where we would not only travel, but we would have a a brick and mortar location where people could come in and have an experience of shopping like in a supermarket where they would have aisles to go up and down and pick the foods that they need or foods that they can eat with their dietary restrictions. And we're hoping to have something like that come to us pretty soon.

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Stephanie Glover-Wilson, Charley Kuczynski and Rich Cooper joined News 12’s Della Crews to talk more about the group and its mission.

Spotlight New Jersey: Hunger Free Unity in the Community

Stephanie Glover-Wilson, Charley Kuczynski and Rich Cooper joined News 12’s Della Crews to talk more about the group and its mission.

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