PISCATAWAY, N.J. — A New Jersey nonprofit that was gutted by fire last week is already back to feeding its community.
The Fish, Inc. food bank in Piscataway caught fire on Wednesday, but volunteers didn’t wait to get back up and running.
Like most moms, Shantelle Cherry is trying to find food her kids will love. She has been getting groceries at Fish, Inc. for 17 years.
“I’m a single mom of six kids. This pantry has always made the difference between me being able to put a balanced meal on the table and me saying, ‘Okay, we have to limit it because the funds are not there,'” Cherry said.
Fish, Inc. helps keep residents in need fed and clothed. Last week’s fire destroyed the group’s building.
But not its mission.
“First, it was shock because you don’t expect something like that, and then, yeah, you stop and say, ‘What am I going to do?'” said Lisa Couch, the nonprofit’s president.
Couch and her team of volunteers decided to hold its usual Monday food giveaway anyway. This time, in the parking lot of the church next door, with food donated by local grocery stores.
“I felt that we needed to absolutely serve our people, and we were determined to do it,” Couch said.
One of the biggest challenges now is storing all the food, without the building and without refrigerators.
“Normally, anything that’s left over obviously is shelved and frozen, but we don’t have that capacity right now. So we’re moving it on to other agencies that can use it, and then Wednesday, we start again,” Couch said.
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