MyCentralJersey.com

 

BOUND BROOK – Rotary International has a simple motto, "Service Above Self."

Thanks to the Branchburg Rotary Club's commitment to that goal, the Bound Brook Presbyterian Church has helped needy families beat hunger since the onset of the pandemic in April 2020. 

The church is also partnering with the Bound Brook and Middlesex Borough school districts, Casa de Esperanza, the Food Bank Network of Somerset County, and HOME of Somerset County.

Through its "Love Local" campaign, the church has donated close to $60,000 in ShopRite gift cards to families. The church has also donated  $15,000 worth of food to the Bound Brook school district's food bank. 

Ted Settle, an elder at the church, has been instrumental in creating and overseeing the programs. 

 

 

"It started with Bill (Stabile) and Joe (Horner) from the Branchburg Rotary Club asking if we could use 60 frozen turkeys and we donated them to the Bound Brook schools' food bank," Settle said. "Then they started asking if they could bring food  from grocery stores and that is how it started."

Another program is a partnership with the Branchburg club. Rotary members would drive to local grocery stores and buy the food that has reached the last day of its sell-by sticker. The food is brought to the church where a chef sorts through the items, then the food is delivered to the Bound Brook schools' food bank.

"Joe (Horner) and Billy (Stabile) handle really more of the funding end of it and I went into the operations end of it," said John Shockley, former president of the Rotary Club, who is still an active member.

 

Shockley is a believer in the club's motto.

"My passion is to make people's lives easier," Shockley said. "God blessed me in my own way and I know there are people that are better off than I am. Still, I am better off than a lot of people and I just try to help them the best that I can."

 

The program has been a godsend for needy families in Bound Brook. "The church community has been a wonderful asset to the families in Bound Brook," said Beth Fischer, the school district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction who is in charge of the food bank. "We are very appreciative of their help and continued support."

 

The food bank was started during the pandemic to help the children and families that depended on the free and reduced meal programs offered in the schools which were shuttered.

"Children received free breakfast and lunch but we knew families would need more," Fischer said. "I worked with the Food Bank of Somerset and we provided weekend meal packs to our families. Local residents saw or heard what we were doing.  People began to show up with groceries for us to distribute and it grew from there."

 

Some of the food that the Rotary Club brings to the church is reserved so it can be cooked into entrees and soups in the "Not Just Soup Project." A chef uses the church's kitchen three days a week to create at least two different entrees, two different soups, and one type of salad are made. 

 

"It is a puzzle every week," said Chef Jim McGrady, a retired chef and Rotary Club who used to be the executive chef for the Maggiano's chain of restaurants. "I literally don't have a menu, we get the food and then plan the menu. We try to stick to two soups, two entrees, and a salad if lettuce arrives. If not, then I make another soup."

 

Once the food is made, a church member organizes the families that have signed up for the program. Families come to the church on the scheduled pick-up day and church deacons distribute the meals.

 

The program started in January and is expected to continue through December. Any meals that are leftover are donated to a food bank.

More than 12,000 meals have been given to families in need, McGrady cooks roughly 700 meals Monday through Wednesday.

 

The proceeds from his online meal service, Papa Jim's Comfort Kitchen, help the Rotary's program. This week he is featuring lobster macaroni and cheese, she-crab soup, and baby back ribs with blueberry bacon jam barbecue sauce.