By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Pastor Melissa Doyle-Waid of the United Methodist Church sorted through some containers brimming with cans, boxes and bags of food that will be handed out to needy families just before Christmas.
“There’s peanut butter, cereal, soup, sugar and flour – all of the baking stuff, too,” she said. “There’s also tuna fish, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pasta and sauce and rice.”
All of those things and more will be packaged with turkeys, hams and all the fixings to create Christmas dinners that will be distributed by the United Methodist Church’s food pantry to about 25 families on Dec. 20.
The donated food reflects the community’s generosity in helping the Sea Isle City church to feed local residents who are struggling to make ends meet or are simply too poor to even buy food.
“I’m always amazed by the generosity of this community. Sea Isle comes through all of the time,” Doyle-Waid said in an interview Wednesday.
The church runs a community food bank that allows people to stop in, browse through the shelves and select the items they want – similar to someone shopping in a grocery store. But in this case, the food is free.
For the holiday, United Methodist Church will also hand out free Christmas dinners. Doyle-Waid said that even though about 25 families are expected to receive the dinners, the church will not stop there if more people need food for Christmas.
“If we need extras, we’ll make them. We’ll make them as long as people need them,” she said.
Although Sea Isle and other neighboring beach resorts are best known as vacation havens crowded with multimillion-dollar oceanfront homes, there are pockets of poverty in Cape May County. Doyle-Waid emphasized that absolutely no one should go hungry.
“I don’t want anyone to go without food. There is no reason that someone in the United States in 2022 should be without food.”
Doyle-Waid told the heartbreaking story of one woman who came to the church for a Thanksgiving dinner and broke out in tears because she couldn’t afford to buy food for her family.
“There are some people who open their empty refrigerator and ask, ‘What am I going to do? How am I going to feed my children?’” Doyle-Waid said.
A room inside the church at 4102 Central Ave. has been converted into a food pantry. Doyle-Waid praised all of the individual donors, businesses, organizations and civic groups that help to keep the food bank shelves full throughout the year.
“Without them, we could not do what we do,” she said.
In addition to the nonperishable food on the shelves, there is also a refrigerator stocked with meats and vegetables.
Household items such as bathroom tissue, paper towels and cleaners as well as toiletries including shampoo, toothpaste and diapers are also given out at the food pantry.
United Methodist Church continues to accept food or cash donations for the pantry. Doyle-Waid noted that struggling families will continue to need food and household supplies well after the holidays are over.
“We think about the holidays as being happy and joyous times. But if people are struggling financially, it’s not happy times,” she said.
“But we’re about to give people some peace of mind. If they open their refrigerator and find food there, it’s a huge weight off their shoulders,” she added.
People may call or text Pastor Melissa Doyle-Waid at (609) 231-4929 to arrange to stop in for food or make a donation to the United Methodist Church pantry. The church is located at 4102 Central Ave., overlooking the John F. Kennedy Boulevard entryway into Sea Isle City.
