Barnegat Food Pantry Needs Angels

ANGEL TREE TRADITION BRIGHTENS BARNEGAT

This Christmas, more families could use an ”angel” to insure that there will be a holiday meal and gifts for the children. Caring people in the community can brighten the holidays through the Angel Tree project of the Barnegat Chamber of Commerce and the Barnegat Food Pantry.

Angel Trees are located at Sweet Jenny's and Serpico's Restaurant on East Bay Avenue, Marchioni's Pizza and Pasta on West Bay Ave and Lefty's Restaurant  on Route 9. The tree “ornaments” are cards with a gift request for a child in need. Anyone can stop in and pick an ornament that lists the age and gender of the child, buy a gift, and return it unwrapped to the tree.

“This year it’s proving more important than ever to have a gift-giving program such as the Angel Tree,” said Barnegat Chamber of Commerce Vice-President Jerry Thompson. “With the economy still in a slow pace donations are much less, many families may not have the resources to see that their children have something under the tree at Christmas.”

Gift requests come from families referred by the Barnegat Food Pantry. The pantry will arrange delivery of the items to over 100 families.

Barbara Slamp, Director of the food pantry, said more families than ever are in need of basic necessities. In past years, the food pantry demand has more than tripled. This year at Thanksgiving, Slamp said the pantry has received too many requests to count.  For more information or to arrange a toy donation call the Barnegat Food Pantry at 609 698 7174.