By: Isaiah S. Showell, Follow South Jersey Multimedia Journalist/’What’s Good’ Host
BRIDGETON, N.J. — If anyone accused the City of Bridgeton of being lazy, they are sadly mistaken because the Hopeloft had AmeriCorps members along with community members come out to serve the city’s homeless with toiletries, hot meals, and soup.
The Woodland Country Day School also volunteered their time to help make sandwiches, while Dominic Mercado along with his brother Sebastian Mercado shared how they started Dominic’s Pasta party, a fundraiser started on Dominic’s birthday during the COVID pandemic to help the community of Vineland instead of receiving gifts in hopes to inspire people in Bridgeton to do something similar.
The Woodland Country Day School helped make bracelets with affirming words on them to stuff in the bags with the hot meals for the homeless. Some of the words and phrases on the bracelets were “Smile,” “Stay Strong,” and “Never Give Up,” words to encourage as well as affirm. “It’s nice to help people who just need help,” said Olivia Krevics of Woodland Country Day School.
Once the toiletries and hot meals were packaged, it was time to move to the streets of Bridgeton to dish out the food and toiletries. The teams hitting the streets consisted of children in the neighborhood with their parents walking or driving through Bridgeton handing out bags full of tasty and thoughtful treats.
“I see different people of different backgrounds coming together for one common cause and it warms my heart,” said Mario Morales, a community member of Bridgeton.
Sixty bags of food with toiletries and 15 bags of just toiletries were given out to the community with three treys of food donated to Code Blue resulting in one successful MLK Day of service. It was definitely What’s Good in South Jersey!
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