FTPD, Franklin Food Bank Team Up To Distribute Food

The Franklin Food Bank and Franklin Township Police partnered December 1 to give away more than 700 boxes of produce to those in need.

The food distribution was held at the Board of Education offices on Route 27 in Franklin Park.

Representatives of both organizations said they were working together to reach Franklin residents in need who may not be able to get to the Food Bank’s Churchill Avenue warehouse.

The boxes, which were procured from the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, contained potatoes, cabbage, apples, carrots, beets and cucumbers.

FTPD Sgt. Rebecca Lea, head of the department’s Community Relations Bureau, said CRB staff were there to “give back at this time when a lot of people may not have what they used to have.”

She said the CRB participated in food distributions on the northern side of the township, at the CRB Hamilton Street headquarters and in Naaman Williams Park.

“They have people in need at the southern end of town as well,” she said.

Kevin McGuinness, the Food Bank’s acting director, said the partnership with the FTPD is “Our way of making our outreach bigger and better.”

“We’re getting out into the neighborhood, distributing things, and feeding more people, and that’s what it’s all about,” he said

“This is a part of the township that we don’t get to service as much as we should,” McGuinness said.

As the largest food bank in Somerset County, and one of the largest in the state, McGuinness said the Franklin Food Bank has had to step in when other food pantries have had to shut down.

“A lot of food banks closed during the pandemic, and they haven’t been able to bounce back,” he said. “We’re still quietly taking care of whoever shows up at the door.”

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