Do You Know?
By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Annie Hainsworth began helping feed those in need when she and her husband owned a Carvel Ice Cream store on Asbury Avenue in Neptune.
That was 25 years ago and Hainsworth is still helping people.
She is the director of the CHANT Food Pantry on Corlies Avenue in Neptune and her pantry, like so many others, is struggling to stay afloat.
Hainsworth said so far this year donations are down by 70 percent.
Hainsworth said over the past month alone CHANT, which stands for, Conquer Hunger and Needy Together, provided food to 800 adults and children as food supplies have steadily declined.
The group is also having trouble making its $1,000 per month rent.
Hainsworth said she and her husband owned a Carvel Ice Cream store on Asbury Avenue in Neptune for many years and she would often bring food in from home for customers she learned were in need.
“People came in from all walks of life, seniors, welfare people, children,” she said.
Soon she could no longer bring her own food so she began ordering bags of food from the grocery store and having them delivered.
When they lost their lease on the property in 1985 they closed their business and she took a break from working.
“But about six months after we closed the store, I started to think about what happened to all those people I used to help.”
She heard about an organization called SHARE on the radio and took down the phone number.
It was located in Newark and she traveled there to attend a meeting and learn about the program.
She then opened a SHARE branch to service Central and South Jersey, which she started by handing out flyers in the parking lot of a supermarket.
“I was charged up about doing it,” she said.
Later she got a call from the State of New Jersey agriculture department asking if she would like to distribute USDA food.
“That’s how I got started,” she said. “I had more food to give.”
During the Clinton Administration, in 1996 when the president couldn’t get the budget passed, she said government regulations changed and she had to have a food pantry to distribute their food.
“I didn’t know anything about running a food pantry but I knew bigger things were needed.”
The Bethel A.M.E. Church lent her space in its basement for a time.
Later she said she believes the Holy Spirit directed her to Robert E. West of the Neptune Housing Authority.
West suddenly offered help.
“He said when would you like to get started,” Hainsworth recalled.
He gave her a key to space in one of the senior housing buildings on where she stayed until Nov. of 2005 before moving to her current location.
Hainsworth said CHANT accepts donations of all kinds.
“We have freezers, refrigerators, we accept all foods.”
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