This month has been a blessing to our community members struggling during this pandemic. New Destiny partnered with a local hospital to bring relief. While things appear to be improving for some, many others continue to suffer from the pandemic’s devastating impact daily. Many people in Paterson are trying to provide for their families in the face of food insecurity, higher food prices, and unemployment, all factors that contribute to poverty. New Destiny at the Heritage housing site recently successfully finished a program along with St. Joseph’s Hospital providing families with hot meals for 12 weeks. The “Feed the Frontlines Initiative” is a special feeding program that ran for the months of January and February 2022. As part of this program, restaurants in Ridgewood provided freshly cooked meals for FREE! This program benefited our families in need, seniors, disabled or immunocompromised families residing in our community. Seventy-five hot meals were given to our families every week. Twenty-five families in need were selected to receive the hot meals every week. This program has made a difference in the lives of families residing at the Heritage Housing Development. One of our families that benefited from this program was the C family. Ms. C lives with her two minor grandchildren. Due to her health condition, she was scared to go out with the new variant of COVID-19, and the increased cases during the first 3 weeks of January. Ms. C was glad and extremely grateful to get food three times a week throughout the months of January and February. Ms. C did not have to leave her house to buy groceries to feed her grandchildren. She was able to avoid exposure and as she quoted the meals were “a gift from heaven.” On the other hand, The L and the G families were facing financial hardship during these months. To survive and feed their families, they went to local food pantries. They were surprised and thankful that they could get warm, delicious, and nutritious food right from a restaurant, very emotional, Mr. L said: “God bless everyone one of you for these foods.” New Destiny FSC continues to partner with other organizations to provide relief during this pandemic, where families lack the basic needs such as food. Our hope is to continue to provide tools, resources to meet our families where they are, so they can continue to stay healthy and hopeful.
