Food pantry clients angry over planned closing

Reacting with stunned anger, many clients of Touch New Jersey Food Pantry Inc. at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Mount Ephraim this week criticized a recent Diocese of Camden decision that would shut the facility to enlarge the church parking lot.

"That's crazy, to knock it down for parking," George Side, 37, a laid-off construction worker from Gloucester City, said outside the pantry on Wednesday as he waited to collect food. "They're feeding people out here. This is horrible."

Deanna Porro, 34, said she, her husband, and their three children had relied heavily on Touch New Jersey since she was laid off recently as a department manager at a Wal-Mart and her husband's hours as a pipefitter were cut back.

"It's awful of the Catholic Church to do this," Porro said. "The lines of people who need food here are long every week. It breaks your heart."

The spot where the 900-square-foot pantry building sits would yield about 30 spaces needed when the parish absorbs the congregation of Holy Maternity Church in Audubon, according to diocese spokesman Andrew Walton.

The parish consolidation, one of many in a massive reconfiguration announced in 2008, was hastened by a decline in the number of priests in South Jersey as well as by a general falling-off of church attendance, Walton said.

Walton said the diocese notified the pantry, which pays no rent, of the change in November.

"I regret that I have to ask you to find another location," the Rev. Hugh Bradley, who is overseeing the Sacred Heart-Holy Maternity consolidation, wrote in a Feb. 2 letter to Debbie Realey, executive director of the nonprofit Touch New Jersey.

After the consolidation, the new parish "is looking to expand services that would address needs similar to" those served by the pantry, Walton said.

He could not say when the consolidation would be completed or whether the parish's plans might include food distribution.

In the meantime, "perhaps an appeal to the township, county, or another religious organization to house the pantry would be accepted," Bradley said in his letter.

Reached yesterday, Bradley referred all questions about the pantry to Walton.

Realey said she had been unable to find a replacement for the one-story red-brick building with white columns that for about two years has housed the pantry, which feeds 1,400 clients monthly.

The diocese told her the pantry would have to vacate by March 15, she said. But after a reporter asked about the closing on Wednesday, Realey said the deadline had been extended to April 30.

Bradley has "been quite adamant about getting us out," she said.

The other day, as each pantry client carried off about 25 pounds worth of chicken, lettuce, milk, carrots, eggs, and other foods, Realey surveyed the scene in the former church gymnasium.

"We've seen a 100 percent increase in the number of clients just in the last six months," she said. "People's unemployment payments are running out, and food stamps aren't enough. We're drawing people from Camden, Gloucester, Burlington, even Atlantic Counties. What are they all going to do?"

Edward Gamble, 78, of Bellmawr, contemplated that question. He and his wife, who receive about $14,000 a year in Social Security benefits, are raising two grandchildren, ages 5 and 14.

"There aren't many places around here to go for food," Gamble said. "We get enough food from this pantry to last a week. I don't know what we'll do without it."

After the pantry closes, the closest facility will be in Audubon, but it is much smaller and operates only a few days a month.

According to Realey, the diocese also has asked for payment of electric bills that are five months in arrears. In his letter, Bradley said it was "imperative" that she pay, Realey said.

Touch New Jersey and the diocese had an oral agreement that the pantry could use the space rent-free as long as it paid $300 a month for electricity, Realey said. She said she paid regularly until August, when more clients started showing up.

"I decided to put the money into extra food rather than the electric bill," Realey said.

Walton denied a claim by Realey that the church cut off heat in the pantry this month and said nonpayment of utility charges "was not a factor in the decision they be requested to relocate."

Now, said Mary Reed, 47, a pantry volunteer and client, people have just over two months to figure out how far they'll need to travel to replace the pantry's bounty.

"Isn't this ridiculous?" she said. "Now I've got to go to China to get food."