Thanksgiving joy comes to families in need thanks to Project Self-Sufficiency
By Laurie Gordon
NEWTON — For Cathy McMickle, of Milford, Pennsylvania, helping assemble Thanksgiving dinners for the needy was particularly emotional. The Senior Forms Analyst at Selective Insurance joined dozens of other Selective employees and volunteers to unload turkeys and pies and arrange dinners into bags for area families on Monday.
“It's just so great to give back,” McMickle said with a tear in my eye, “My sister is in a situation where she relies on food pantries and places like Project Self-Sufficiency out in Phillipsburg, so this is very important to me to give back to the community.” This was McMickle's first time helping out at Project Self-Sufficiency and she added, “When I entered the room and saw all of the food that had been gathered it was so overwhelming. What a great thing that is happening here.”
Hundreds of Sussex County families will be able to enjoy a Thanksgiving turkey with all of the trimmings this year, thanks to the generosity of local businesses, churches and individuals who donated voluminous amounts of food for Project Self-Sufficiency participants this November. Agency staff and volunteers gathered hundreds of frozen turkeys, along with fresh produce, cans of cranberry sauce, vegetables, stuffing mix, dinner rolls, and freshly-baked pies.
Fresh produce was donated by John Mathews of Hinkley Auto Sales, who obtained a donation of 15 baskets of apples from Gulick Fruit Farm and supplemented the contribution with over 1,500 pounds of carrots, potatoes and onions. “I admire the work that Project Self-Sufficiency does getting people back on their feet,” Mathews said, “They get people back into the workforce and facing in the right direction.”
Alice Breitenbucher, an Actuary Application Developer Analyst from Selective, from Stillwater, said, “I think it's great to be able to volunteer for a day for such a fantastic cause.”
Roy Knutsen, a member of the Project Self-Sufficiency Leadership Counsel and a member of The College of Knowledge, arrived about 9:30 with a truck full of frozen turkeys. Knutsen is part of a philanthropic group called The College of Knowledge that donates turkeys each year. “It's our pleasure,” he said. The College of Knowledge is a group of approximately 20 men. This year they donated 225 turkeys to the effort. Knutsen explained, “This year there was a bigger demand for the number of turkeys, and the guys stepped up. We are so happy to help families in need. We’re just a good group of guys who try to help locally. We’ve been getting together for years. We have breakfast at the Fredon Diner and we raise funds for local organizations.” The group has supported everything from baseball teams to the local fire department. This year, after months of trying, the group won $500 from the New Jersey lottery, which was immediately invested in the purchase of the Thanksgiving turkeys.
This was Mike DiBerardino's first year volunteering to help out, and he was put in charge of stacking pies donated by the youth group at the Newton First Presbyterian Church. Under the direction of Colleen Duffy, Associate for Family Nurture at the First Presbyterian Church, all the pies were hand made the day before, boxed up, labeled as to what type they were and delivered, personally, by Duffy. The Youth Group from the First Presbyterian Church of Newton donated 200 homemade pies to the Thanksgiving feast. “The Youth Group has been making pies for Project Self-Sufficiency for the past eight years,” Duffy said, “It has become a tradition and the kids love serving the community in this way year after year.”
DiBeradino said, “I can't believe all these pies. This is great and it's really good to give back and help out.”
“The generosity of our friends and neighbors towards Project Self-Sufficiency participants is deeply appreciated during the holiday season,” said Deborah Berry-Toon, Executive Director of Project Self-Sufficiency. “We have a lot to be thankful for this year.” Berry-Toon was out in the cold working hand-in-hand with the volunteers to unload the trucks and bag the meals. She gave special thanks to all of the donors and volunteers.
Project Self-Sufficiency’s mission is to provide the services necessary for single parents, teen parents, displaced homemakers and two-parent families to improve the quality of their lives and those of their children through the attainment of economic self-sufficiency and family stability. Project Self-Sufficiency offers a supportive family-centered environment where life issues are addressed through a combination of individual counseling, peer support groups, case management services, parenting skills training, life skills management training, home visits, childcare and early childhood education, family activities and health education. Since 1986 Project Self-Sufficiency has served more than 25,500 families.
Thanks to the efforts Project Self-Sufficiency, many families who otherwise would have struggled will have a happy Thanksgiving.
To make a donation, or to find out more about the programs and services available at Project Self-Sufficiency, call 973-940-3500 or visit www.projectselfsufficiency.org.