The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
“Fake news. Professional actor placed by the anti-garage zealots trying their best to force the narrative. Nice try. We’re building and moving forward.
And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
others disagree……………………………
Continue reading Reader Calls Homeless At Ridgewood Train Station “Fake News”
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Senate President Steve Sweeney today sharply criticized the Governor’s veto of his legislation extending lifetime emergency assistance benefits for the homeless.
“This is a cold act on the coldest day of the year,” said Senator Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “Days like this should be a reminder that there are homeless veterans suffering from PTSD, abused mothers with young children, recovering drug addicts and alcoholics who find themselves out on the street and need our help.
Continue reading Sweeney Calls Murphy’s Veto of Emergency Assistance Bill for the Homeless: “A Cold Act On The Coldest Day Of The Year”
October 25,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
N.J.Food & Clothing Rescue redistributes donated food, clothing, personal hygiene items and at times household items and other necessities in a rapid manner to people in crisis whether it be due to fire, homelessness or personal situations.
“WITH THE HELP of many generous people and volunteers over the past year our charity has helped in excess of 40,000 people we have rescued and redistributed at least 60,000 pounds of perishable foods.
We started and ran a pantry successfully helping an average of 40 families per week for 3 months prior to someone doing a hostile takeover over of it.
We have run roughly 40 street outreaches, mostly in Newark but also a couple in Paterson which provided food, clothes, and personal hygiene items to 1000’s of people living on the street and emergency shelters.
We did about 40 or so outreaches at HQ providing perishable foods to people in the local community.
We collected over 2000 cans of play-doh for the kids cancer center in Hackensack.
We collected 118 turkeys and received donations of other foods that we cooked and made 1000 heat and serve thanksgiving dinners, as well as cook it yourself thanksgiving meal “bags” and distributed them through 3 counties and 9 towns to veterans, seniors, pantries and many people that would not have had a thanksgiving dinner otherwise.
We assisted the city of Passaic with an outreach for seniors and we provided enough household necessities and personal hygiene items for roughly 60 seniors.
Between last year , and this year, we collected and distributed enough school supplies to help over 1000 students that might not have what they need to start the school year off with what they need.
We assisted about 300 families that had fires and lost everything.including many new clothes and hygiene items for the huge fire in Passaic and new school supplies and uniforms for a family that had a fire the day before school started and they lost everything.
We organized and ran a world homeless day outreach with 6 other groups in newark and helped in excess of 500 people in 4 hours, with clothes, hygiene items, and food.
We did an indoor outreach at a shelter that has hundreds of kids and provided at least 100 kids coats and winter footwear for them.
We collected many toys at Christmas and helped Santa make many kids Christmas a little happier.
we worked with another group and provided several hundred pairs of shoes, sandals, flip flops for people in the DR that have no footwear.
Amazingly….we were able to help get a sick mom and her son off the street for about a week and give her time to feel better in a relaxed situation and buy her time to apply for services.
We have and continue to work with other charities and organizations, helping them to help others.
If you feel we are deserving…PLEASE SHARE this post so that SOMEONE in the Passaic/Garfield/Wallington area sees it that can help us find a new place to work from. if we don’t get a new place we will no longer be able to do all these things.”
N.J. Food & Clothing Rescue
P.O. Box 106
Lodi N.J. 07644
By Phone 201-747-8706
By Email njfoodandclothingrescue@aol.com
Teens & Broadway Stars Sing for Covenant House
Support Covenant House for Homeless Teens Teens and Broadway Stars Sing for Homeless Kids– March 24 Local Voice Teacher Prepares Covenant House Youth to Perform in Ridgewood, NJ On March 24, a very exciting musical event – A Night of FUTURE Broadway Stars – will be bursting out of the windows of Ben Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood beginning at 7:00 pm.
Shining stars from high schools around Bergen County will be performing show stopping tunes alongside Broadway Stars John Treacy Egan (The Producers, Nice Work), Sally Ann Skoric (Jekyll and Hyde, Victor Victoria), Richard Todd Adams, (Phantom, Les Miserables) and David Elder (Curtains, 42nd Street) to benefit Covenant House New Jersey. “One of my favorite days of the year is the day I go down to Covenant House in Newark and meet the young person who will be singing at our show with my students,” says Susan McBrayer. “Wait until everyone hears David. He is so talented, and such a joy!” Students from Stage Right, Art of Motion, McBrayer Vocal Studio, and Ridgewood High School will also be there sharing their talents and their passions to help homeless youth. “This will be my 5th year to perform at A Night of FUTURE Broadway Stars and I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” exclaimed Sally Ann Skoric, a Broadway performer and Ridgewood mother. “My students at Art of Motion are busy rehearsing their big number! And I heard today that Hollywood Anderson, a beautiful Covenant House youth who made it all the way to Hollywood this year on American Idol will be with us too! How fun is that going to be?” Several young men and women from Covenant House will share their inspirational stories and be singing in the finale. “Each of our homeless kids comes to us with their own story, and we don’t turn any away. We are so grateful to all of these performers – close to 100 Bergen County students – and volunteers who are making it possible for us to keep our doors open for the young people who need us”, says Marcia Mann,
Development Director for Covenant House New Jersey. Covenant House New Jersey serves homeless young men and women between the ages of 18 and 21 at crisis centers and transitional housing in Newark, Montclair, Elizabeth, and Atlantic City. A Night of FUTURE Broadway Stars, March 24, 7:00 pm at Ben Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, NJ. Tickets are $25, $20 for Students and Seniors, and can purchased on-line at chnj.booktix.com, and at the door. For more information, contact Marcia Mann at mmann@covenanthouse.org.
This Ridgewood chef lived homeless, on the streets of Paterson
DECEMBER 31, 2014 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Vaughn Crenshaw always loved to cook. It is in his blood, he said — everyone in his family knows how to “put flavors together.” But from the moment he saw Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show at age 9, he knew the kitchen was his calling.
Four years later, however, he was living on the streets of Paterson, sleeping in an abandoned Volkswagen hatchback on Van Houten Street, hustling and selling drugs just to get by.
“It was a little two-door wagon, a blue joint,” he said. “I remember that like it was yesterday. It was hard to stay clean, my clothes were extremely dirty, and I became very upset with anybody who looked at me wrong. I became very aggressive. I felt like nobody wanted me.”
His future — if there was to be one — was bleak.
Things are different today. Sporting a shaved head and perfectly coiffed goatee, Crenshaw, 29, is the executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood. He lives in Hackensack with his wife of three months, Erica, and listens to jazz and plays basketball. He teaches conversions — how to use math the way a chef does — at the Paterson Adult and Continuing Education school, and is often involved in food drives in his old hometown.
