Responding to Need with Dignity

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Jesus says this, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They also will answer, lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you? He will reply, truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Thus, it's no coincidence that one of Nassau Church's most important mission partners is an organization that many of you already know and love. Arm in Arm, founded in 1980 by Nassau and Trinity Church. For over 45 years. That's half a century now. Arm in Arm has fought on the front lines of the seemingly unending battle against food insecurity in our county and is no stranger to the irony that adults and children still go to bed hungry in this, the world's richest country. They were blessed to have as our speaker Maureen Hunt, the Executive Director of ARM in arm. After a successful career running her own business, Maureen has spent the last 15 years of her life in the not for profit sector, making life better for people who need our help. People who are hungry, people who are thirsty, people who need, strangers who need inviting in. She began work in arm in arm as the Chief Development Officer in 2020 and assumed the role of Executive Director in 2025. Please welcome our good friend. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Good morning, everyone. It is always a pleasure and an honor to be here at Nassau Prez. I say that with a very full heart. So thank you for having me. Thank you for your attention today and thank you for all you do to support our mission. I have to wear my glasses because I have to cheat a little bit because I am not like Dave Davis and I can't just get up here and just do it. But I want to talk about our history a little bit. I know a lot of you here, so I think most of you are familiar with ARM and arm. Is anybody not familiar with ARM and arm? Okay, that's good. That's good. So I'm not starting with our history of NASA, but I am going to loop back and. And sort of end with our history of NASA. But I want to start and ask you all just kind of to reflect for a minute and think about when was the last time you Were really hungry. Not like, I skipped lunch, I missed dinner, but like really, really hungry. Where your stomach tightens, your patience thins, you can't think straight. And then kind of imagine what it's like to work through that, what it's like to be a parent through that, what it's like to manage family or a chronic illness, being hungry like that. Hopefully none of you have had to experience that. But for thousands of family in Mercer county today, and really across our amazing nation, that feeling is not occasional. It's daily. What does food insecurity look like? There is no formula for what food insecurity looks like. You know, sometimes there's a misnomer that it's the homeless person. You know, could be a senior from Princeton who snap benefits ran out by the third week of the month, or whose fixed income isn't enough to cover groceries. Could be a single parent in Trenton working full time but not earning enough to qualify for any assistance. It could be a family in Lawrenceville that's facing a sudden medical crisis and can't make ends meet. It could be a volunteer at our pantry. It could be somebody on arm in arm staff. There's no formula for what it looks like. It could be the person next to you. You just don't know. It's not a character flaw. It's not that somebody isn't working hard enough. It's really kind of a math problem for our country right now. But the reality is, recently somebody at one of our mobile pantries said to me, I'm not choosing between rent and groceries. I'm choosing between my son's asthma medication and groceries. And while we hear a lot of people choosing between rent and groceries, we hear these other stories every day. Medicines, new shoes, all those things. That's what food insecurity looks like. It's not just empty cupboards. It's really impossible choices that families have to make, that parents have to make. But I think I want to kind of start about what food security means. And you see the definition there. It means reliable access to enough nutritious, culturally appropriate food for an active, healthy life. And it's really grounded in six dimensions. Availability. Food must exist in sufficient quantity and quality. This includes production, distribution, supply chains from farms to markets to pantries. It means access. People need to be able to get food. We have food deserts in Trenton, places where people can't get to to get food. It means physically transportation, economically utilization. Food must be usable for health and nutrition. You know, the other piece about being hungry is it's about what you put in your body, we all know when we put junk in, sometimes junk comes out. And it's important for families to be able to have good food. It's about stability. You have to have access and availability over time. It's not enough to just have food to go in. People need safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. It's about. Oh, I said utilization twice, sorry. Stability, access and availability must be consistent over time. Households should not have to swing between abundance and scarcity due to crises or policy changes. And it's agency. People should be able to have choice over what they want to eat. Agency is dignity. And those of you that know us, which all of you do, arm in arm is about dignity, serving people with dignity and compassion. And it's about sustainability. Food systems have to be resilient and future focused. They should protect the environment, support the economy and remain viable for the long term. So that's what food security means. But what does food insecurity look like in Mercer County? So this is just sort of a snapshot of Mercer county you all know, because you are all well read and very well informed. Food security has increased from close to 10% to over 11%. Of course, it's highest in Trenton, which is five to seven times the county average. But it is growing across the county. I mean, we'll talk about Princeton. There is great need in Princeton. It's a real misnomer, but it's here. And who does it impact? Seniors on fixed income. We see more and more seniors at our pantries. Families with children, frequently single income households, immigrant and multilingual households, people managing illness, households, earnings too much to qualify for help. Too much in Mercer county is not a lot. And then there's barriers. Transportation, pantry hours versus work schedules, rising food prices, cultural fit and availability of foods. And of course the stigma and the emotional weight of having to go to a food pantry. And it's not that there aren't safety nets there for people. I mean, what about snap? There's a lot of talk about SNAP this year. I think a lot of people learned what SNAP is, our Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. You know, when we had the SNAP pause, it was devastating for some families. The silver lining was, I think there were a lot of people that did not know what SNAP was. I know that's probably really hard for this room to grasp, but it's the truth. And SNAP reduces hunger more than any other program. It supports working families. And when SNAP shifts. Oops, that's my page here. People, people suffer. There's about 37,000 Mercer county residents who rely on SNAP. And the average SNAP benefit is about $6.10 per person per day. A healthy diet actually costs 9 to $10 per person per day. And when the SNAP pause happened, many families lost $90 to $250 a month overnight. You all shop at the grocery store, right? How expensive is it? Used to be you could come out with a bag of groceries for $50. It's easily $100. Now if you have a couple children, a family, you're on one income. You're barely making ends meet. And when SNAP drops, it shocks. It was a shock to the system and the pantries. Our pantry felt it right away. It was an immediate spike in pantry visits. There's increased demand for fresh food. Many more first time visitors. So just to give you a sense of arm in arm in our service, we serve families through about. It was 3,500 to 4,000 pantry visits and deliveries a month. When SNAP paused in November, that number skyrocketed to 5,800. 5,800. Those are records we do not want to break. And I will say that even before the SNAP pause, we were experiencing an increase in need of about 18 to 20%. Even before that. Now I just got our level of Service numbers for March. 5400. So there's a lot of hungry people out there that need help. That's where we come in, and that's where all of you come in. So what do we do about it? What do we do about it? We serve a lot of people. You've heard that. You know us. You know what we do. We meet families where they are. We meet them with dignity, with respect and with choice. You know us. We have two bricks and mortar pantries, one right here downstairs in Princeton, one Downtown Trenton at 48 Hudson Street. We have mobile distribution sites across the county. We're on the road four to six days a week now. Started with two to three, now it's four to six. We have partnership with schools, with different clinics, with other housing complexes, people that can't get to us. We do bulk drops. Other nonprofit partners, John Thurber's here. We partner with tasc. We're frequently together serving the community. We offer some nutrition education and some case management. And we partner with other agencies. Like I said, task. We partner with Homefront. We partner with Jewish Family Children's Services. We partner with everybody. Lal Deaf here. Lal Deaf comes here. We want to make sure that when clients are coming to us that they're getting more than food. They're getting more than compassion. They're getting more than just care. They're getting other things that they need to maximize their time when they come to us. Because often if somebody needs food, they might need other things to get by. And the reality is that the system is not always friendly. And if you need help and you need help for the first time, it's hard to know where to go. It's hard to know where to access that help. And so we work together with other nonprofits in the space to make sure that we can get people what they need. I mean, if you talk to Leticia downstairs, she'll tell you somebody will come for the first time. They might be Spanish speaking, they might be in tears, because you know what? I don't have food in my pantry. But then I'm struggling to get my child help. Where can I get my child help? She might refer that person to an agency. She might connect her to somebody. Right. Within ARM and army, we have a group for single moms, and, you know, together we help families figure it out. So when you come to us, you're getting more than just groceries in your pantry. And we do it with volunteers. Some of you in this room are volunteers. 300amonth. That's how many it takes for us to be able to serve at the levels we serve. 300 volunteers a month. We have a staff of 19, but our broader staff is the thousands. So what does that look like across the year at our agency? So last year, 2025, we served through 50,000 pantry visits, mobile deliveries, and home food deliveries. For context, and many of you know this already, before the pandemic, that number was 20 to 24,000. So some of that growth has been intentional in that we adopted a mobile model, which you'll see in a second, and I'll show you all the places we are. But some of it really is just responsive to the need. Even here in Princeton and at our brick and mortar food pantry in Trenton, we've seen our numbers more than double. In Princeton, they've tripled, actually, almost four times. We help people with rent, mortgage and utilities assistance through our housing program. It was 180 last year, and we helped 90 homeless families with children in the Trenton school system with emergency services. How does that all fit together? Fits together because if you're food insecure, sometimes you're housing insecure, and if you're housing insecure, you're often food insecure. Again, it goes back to those choices, the choices people have to make. Am I going to pay my Rent this month? Am I going to feed my kids? Am I going to enroll my kids in summer camp? Like all these things? Am I going to pay my medical bill? Can I fix my car? Car repair is a big one. We have families all the time that fall behind on their rent because their car broke down and they had to pay the money to fix it because they need the car to get to their job. So then they couldn't pay their rent. So, you know, these are families that aren't, you know, federal poverty level family. They're hard working families. Do we have some families that are always going to need assistance? Absolutely. Limited income, very vulnerable families. Some of those we help in our representative pay program where we pay their bills, they're recipients of Social Security benefits. They're our most vulnerable, many dealing with mental illness. We keep them housed by ensuring their bills and their rent are paid because they can't manage their finances alone. So that's kind of what it looks like. Our programs all together, they work in tandem, not in a silo. As I said, we have a program for single moms. We have a Spanish speaking group and we have an English speaking group. We help them with financial counseling, we do financial fitness sessions. As I always say to people, when we're supporting you in a housing program with rental assistance, we never want to be throwing that money into a bucket that has a hole in it. It's very important for us that you are sustainable beyond the period of time that we're helpful helping you with rental assistance. But it gets harder and harder. I mean, I have a slide that tells you kind of what the true cost of living is in Mercer County. And that's really kind of what has driven all of this crazy great need. You know, policies aside, it's really expensive to live here, but we'll get to that. We're talking about food insecurity, right? So I can't show you enough how important our hunger prevention program is to the community. And you can see, oh look, there's the task truck. John, do you see it? I didn't plan that. So you can kind of see there's pictures from Princeton. There's pictures of people home delivering. There's people at our mill one site, there's people at Hudson. There's people out in the community. And we have, as I said, it's an army of volunteers that help us do that. But this just is a map and it's actually a little outdated because since I did this map, we added two more places. This is all the places we Are in Mercer County. Our brick and mortar sites. We've added a site at the Hamilton Library recently once a month. We've now added a site in West Trenton at Trenton Housing Authority once a month where they have to relocate 700 families who are in subsidized housing. It's an area where there are no supermarkets. So we're a lot of places. And as I said, some of this was intentional. Some of it's just in response to the need. We used to deliver through our bulk drops to about 250, 300amonth. That number is up 600. We get calls every day from community partners. We work with Irise, we work with Metcha, we work with men for Health. We work with foundation academies, Children's home Society. I mean, at least a dozen community partners ensuring that when recipients attend those programs, that they have food to bring home to their families. So this is just a little bit more. I pretty much just hit it, but it's a little bit more on our expansion pre pandemic. 23,000. Currently 50,000. Actually, 53,000 if you go year over year. The numbers are just really, really incredible. And as I said, part of this growth has been intentional in trying to get out into the community. You know, we talked about food insecurity and that access piece. Right. Getting to people where they are because of those barriers that we spoke of earlier, Being able to meet them in their neighborhoods at different times and ensure that they have food to feed their families. What does that look like from a dollars and cents standpoint? Where's Sally? There she is. This year. She could tell you the numbers better than me. She's been our treasurer and on Our Finance Committee. 1.5 million in direct food aid. That's what it equates to. This year will probably be a little over that. The full budget's about 2.6 million. Where do we get our food? We get a lot of it from Mercer street friends. They are our best friend, as we say. Probably about 50% of our food comes from the food bank. The rest comes through the generosity of individuals, congregations, faith communities, corporations, institutions, people running food drives and people that generously support our program with dollars and cents so that we can purchase the food that people want to receive. But they're big numbers. How does that translate here to Princeton? Everybody says, we look around Princeton. It's so beautiful. How can there be need in Princeton? There's need in Princeton and in the surrounding Princeton community. 9500 pantry visits and deliveries last year. Year 9500 was 2500 four years ago. So. And I will tell you that at Princeton, we serve families twice a month. That's it. Unless you are in dire need. Forgive me for using the word dire. We serve you twice a month. Why is that? Because there's actually a lot of resources in Princeton, and there are a lot of community partners who we talk to so that we know, okay, if you can't come to ARM in arm, you can go to Jewish Family and Children's Services. On this day, Princeton Mobile Pantry this day, we work together, Share my meals. We work together to make sure that people's needs are met. And we talk. We're in coalitions. And I think that's the other really important part of this work. Work is that we talk to each other. As I said, we're so grateful to be here at Nassau with Nassau lal. Duff comes here? Yes. [00:22:17] Speaker A: When a person leaves here. When a person leaves here from a bimonthly visit, how many days of. [00:22:28] Speaker B: It's a great question. Generally, we say three days of food for their family. That's general. Some families might be larger than others. Here in Princeton, we have the ability because we're not serving at the same level we're serving in Trenton. We know all the families. So Leticia and Bernard are able to sometimes tailor the bag according to the size of the family. So we work with people. [00:22:59] Speaker A: So basically, six days out of a [00:23:01] Speaker B: month is being provided from the site for the regular campus, and we don't turn people away. Like I said, I think that's the other important thing about the work we do. If you come to us and you need food, we're going to give you food. And even if you're beyond those two visits a month, if you're on hard times, we'll help you. In Trenton, we will serve people more than twice a month, but the numbers tell us that people are only coming. 90 to 95% come three times or less a month. So we've been tracking that. Can I ask, what does that tell you? That a bunch of them only come three times or less. It often means they're able to access food other places. That's generally what it means. Like I said, and I think this slide is important, ARM in ARM is not in this work alone. And I say that, you know, over and over again. We are all on the same team, all of the nonprofits. If you're helping task, if you're helping Home Front, if you're helping Mercer Street Friends, you're helping ARM in arm. We all want the same things. Right. And so we talk to each other and there's been a lot of great work that's come out of our talking to each other. So, for example, like the Mercer County Food Security Leaders, which was formed during the pandemic and is comprised of ARM in ARM Task Home Front, Mercer Street Friends, Trenton Health Team, Jewish Family and Children's Services, we talk to each other and we, our goal is really to, I don't want to say end food insecurity, but ensure that people's needs are covered in Mercer county, in the Trenton area. So what's come of that partnership? Well, through that partnership, we advocated to the Office of Food Insecurity and Mercer county came out with some grants to support food purchases, to support food innovative projects. So there's a new hub that's going into Trenton run by Mercer Street Friends and Home Front that's going to be a place where nonprofits come together. In addition to having a choice food pantry, nonprofits can come together and leverage each other's time and services so that when the people come, they get more of what they need in one place. We all work together on grants for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Feed New Jersey, which has invested multimillion dollars into the Trenton area for these food deserts. ARM in ARM is fortunate to be one of the recipients of those grants. So we'll be doing some renovations on our Hudson Street Pantry and increasing our level of service in that east and west Trenton area. And it's again, to bring people together to bring other nonprofits in. I don't. ARM in ARM doesn't need to do everything. There's enough nonprofits out there providing the help. It's just hard for people to access it. So if you can bring it in, then people, when they come, can get access to more of what they need. And that's not just services, it's look, nutrition education, health education. We've had dentists come, come in, offer dental education. All those things that when you're out just trying to get by, you don't have time to be able to navigate all that stuff. So the conversations are really, really important. This just kind of tells you a little bit about what we've seen firsthand through our work. 115%, 5 year increase in families coming to us for food. 18% increase. I mentioned this earlier July to October, prior to the snap pause. 20% increase in people calling us for housing assistance and then 47% increase in rent for a two bedroom apartment in Trenton since 2020. So when you speak to why is There so much need. That rent figure is really, really important. It's the cost of living, you can say. I mean, the Alice report that the United Way did. I mean, basically for a small family of four, the actual cost of living is $73,000. The federal poverty level is 27,750. Yeah. And this was 24. So that number has gone up. So, I mean, the cost of living has outpaced wage growth. And think about if you're a single parent, which 90% of the people we help at housing are single parents. So you're barely. You're barely making ends meet. You need help. And so it's. The cost of living is really, really high. And the thing that makes me really nervous right now is that I'm a little afraid of this, like, perfect storm of, you know, some additional benefits are going to be cut. We know that through some of the bills that are out there, SNAP is going to probably be reduced. Medicaid is going to be reduced. And this is all coming at a time when the cost of living is really high. So there's a part of me that's very worried about that. But I say. I'm still an optimist. And the good news is. And I think the good news is in this room and it's in this community, this greater Mercer county community, this Nassau Presbyterian community. All of you, when we need you, you come and you answer us. And you've done that here at Nassau Press since We were founded 46 years ago. You've offered hope, your hands, your hearts, your caring, your leadership, your artwork so much. I mean, Arthur just said to me on the sis, we have to look out. Maureen, we have to look out, have to look in and out. We have to look to each other. We have to look inside. And you know, the thing that you all give me, faith. That's the thing. I believe in all of you, and you all give me faith. And I get to see every day the impact of people helping each other. And that's the thing. When we say, what's the good news, Maureen? That's the good news. I mean, there's a sadness there, but it's a blessing and a gift that people like you, like this community, like this greater community, you give me hope. And I can't talk about Nassau Prez and arm in arm without kind of taking that look back. I said I was going to end by taking a look back. And John Kelsey's looking at me because he knows who's in the picture, and he remembers, and he was Here in the early days when the Crisis ministry was founded and Princeton Outreach projects. Right, Sally. And founded by Nassau Pres. And Trinity Church, started with a Princeton theological student. And during that time, John, you correct me if I'm wrong, but it was really just to make sure some of the families in the community had food on their tables and that they could keep their lights on or their heat on in the winter. And I'm going to scroll through a lot of this history as a timeline I created several years ago. But we've grown in scope, we've grown in scale, we've grown in impact, we've grown in people. But we've maintained our roots, our mission and our foundation. And that's because of this community, because of the Trinity community, and because of all of you. But just as a benchmarker, in 2000, the direct aid budget was $500,000. And in the early days, I think, John, I found some minutes recently where it said they delivered 60 bags of groceries in a month and helped two people with their heating oil. So today you saw the numbers. 50,000 pantry visits and deliveries, 2.1, 2.2 million in direct aid. 180 to 200 families with housing. We could not do any of this work without you and with the Nassau press. Community, our values are shared. Our values came from this community. Dignity, justice, community, love, faith. We have board members. One's in the room, Sally. We have former board members and Cornerstone council members. Martha's here, John's here. Am I missing anybody? And of course, Dave, who is an ex officio here with ARM in arm. You support us with Valentine's for Food Hunger offering. Your mission and outreach committee has perhaps provided us transformational assistance over the years to help families. Volunteers. You volunteer downstairs, you volunteer in Trenton, you home delivery to families. You advocate. And, you know, bottom line is you make our work possible. And it's not really ARM in arm's story alone. It's our story. You know, ARM in Army. Better together. Right? And we're better together because of all of you in this room, because of this greater Mercer county community. And you live your faith by taking action. As I always say, it's love. You do it for love. You do it as a part of your ministry. And we're so blessed by the love that you share with our clients. And I hear all the time, God bless you. God bless you. That goes to all of you as well, because we really could not do any of this work without you. So thank you. So now to questions. [00:33:36] Speaker A: Okay, [00:33:39] Speaker B: so could you tell us A [00:33:40] Speaker C: little more about the nutrition education and [00:33:43] Speaker B: how many people just need to learn [00:33:44] Speaker C: how to cook to. [00:33:47] Speaker B: It's a great question. We were providing greater nutrition education through a program, a SNAP program at Rutgers, which was lost in funding cuts. So we have done zoom sessions and those kinds of things in both English and Spanish where we talk to people about healthy choices. We, on a very low level, this is a low level education, teach people about the healthy plate. We partner with Rolling Harvest, who has come in and done like cooking demonstrations, showing people with what they receive in their bag how to make foods. And like I said, a few times a year we'll do some deeper nutrition education based on who we have in our community that can offer it. As I said previously, we had a partnership with Rutgers and they did it, but they lost their funding. And so now we're looking externally for some nutritionists who will do this kind of work for us pro bono. But we've had, I mean, we've had Girl Scouts come in and make recipe books for clients on what they receive in a bag. But I think the other thing that's really important is that we really do try to spend the money that we purchase food with on culturally appropriate foods. We ask our clients what they want to receive. You know, it's very interesting. You know, we'll get some foods. One of the big ones that nobody took was the spaghetti squash down in downtown Trenton. Nobody knew what to do with it. So those, to your point, are the education pieces. This is what you can do with a spaghetti squash. We'll have volunteers give some education. Is it something we can give all the time? No, but we do offer it. Does that answer your question? [00:35:33] Speaker A: Go ahead. [00:35:34] Speaker C: Thank you, Maureen. Thank you very, very much. I think I know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Crisis ministry was, as you said, part of Princeton outreach projects, which was started by Wallace Alston and Johnny Crocker. And they in turn hired someone to be the executive director and then got volunteers. One of the initial issues, that initial, a long time issue, was to what extent are will crisis ministry now arm in arm give at least a dollop [00:36:26] Speaker A: of [00:36:28] Speaker C: spirituality and religion along with the food and the rent payment and other things. To what extent? Since again, founded by two churches and it was an ongoing issue, Is it an issue anymore? Is it ever discussed anymore? [00:36:55] Speaker B: So that's also a great question. So arm in arm is nonsectarian, which I think, you know, founded by churches, but we are technically non sectarian. However, you know, the faith and what we were founded on, I feel like, still undergirds all of our work. We are not offering people any faith education. However, we partner with churches so it's available to people if they need it, if they want it, if they wish to receive it. We literally just moved one of our mobile pantries and we talked about this. We just moved one of our mobile pantries to a new church in downtown Trenton and Fountain of Life, and they actually had a table set up where they had Bibles and things. It was not in. In your face. Like, it wasn't in your face, but if you wanted to receive, it was there for you. So I don't know if that answers your question, but that's, you know, we do not. We're not preaching to. Yeah. [00:38:15] Speaker C: Crisis ministry is part of an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian church because it was in the beginning, so it's always been nonsectarian. But as I talked to you before, I gave minutes permission in virtually every religious institution in Princeton back in the day. So right from the beginning, it was churches who were primary supporters. [00:38:49] Speaker B: Well, and faith communities are still a very important part. I mean, we actually have a line on our budget for faith community fundraising. I'm still out there visiting different congregations, doing minutes for mission, promoting volunteerism. So to that point, John, it's still a very important part of what we do. John Thurber. And then. [00:39:15] Speaker C: Okay, okay, Maureen, tell us about what processes are in place, whether it's from county, state, federal, whatever, to wean people out, up and out so they no longer need this help. [00:39:32] Speaker B: So there's a lot of systems in place. There are some subset of the population that are always going to need support. There's very vulnerable families living on Social Security, disability, those types of things. From the government side, I can only speak to the programs that I know of. My programs, people could tell you more. But, you know, Morris County Board of Social Services is there often when we're distributing at the library and some of the other spots we are. And they have workforce programs that people can participate in that some people are mandated to participate in. Actually, that's one of the changes that's coming down with the SNAP is that you have to work. I mean, some of it's just math, though. I mean, as I said, there's tons of programs out there. Nobody wants to be dependent on the system. Nobody I see really wants to be dependent on the system. But you've got a bigger problem of wage versus cost of living where we are. And I mean, I'll say it from My own perspective of, you know, some people that work for us are working two jobs just to be able to make ends meet because it just takes a lot more to do it. So, you know, if somebody's working two jobs and they're making $60,000 and they have two kids, they might need some food, and they might need some food for a while. Most people that we serve, it's episodic. They come for a while, they've fallen on hard times, and then they move on. But we have some that we know by name that have been coming to us for years and years and years, and they'll probably always come to us. But there are all kinds of programs and things, and everybody's always working towards. Because you're asking the question, everybody asks, when does it end? Like, when does it end? And it's really complex. I don't have all the answers. I think it's a marriage of government and private to figure out how people can live better, but I don't have all the answers. I know most people don't want to be dependent on the system, but the system is there for a reason, right? A lot of people don't have safety nets. So when there's no safety net and they're in crisis, the good news is that these supports are there. So I don't know if that really answers your question, but it's what I can offer. [00:42:09] Speaker D: I volunteered for about three years until I retired from that. But there are many languages that come in the door. The operation here operates basically bilingually, but there are all kinds of languages that come in. And often volunteers are bilingual and step in with the unusual language in terms of the. The numbers of population. But in the spiritual side, often the patrons are the ones who say bless you, and particularly at Easter and Christmas, share greetings that Christians also share. So it's available, it's around. And that's. As someone who's in the congregation here, that made me feel grounded also spiritually. But my question is, because other volunteers came from the Princeton schools and Princeton University. Does Princeton University still have that strong volunteer connection? [00:43:26] Speaker B: They do, they do. Each year there's a student ambassador who takes it on. And there's been a lot of movement at the PACE center at the university, too. There's a lot of different tentacles of the university, and they're engaged in different ways. But we do still have a steady presence of Princeton University volunteers right here at the Princeton Pantry. But we've also gotten more and more down into the Trenton area as well. Like, we had the tennis team, recently, different faculty groups. So, yes, all the universities are really involved. I mean, Rider and tcnj. TCNJ has a program where we have volunteers during the school year, four days a week, which is incredible. And those students often can, to your point about the languages, they often can communicate in different languages. And you're right, we've seen a lot of Haitian Creole in Trenton. A lot of Haitian Creole. We're fortunate that we have somebody on staff now that speaks Haitian Creole. We also, as you know, have several bilingual staff members. I'm just curious. Is there something on the wish list, like part of what you're doing is just adding more pantries and growing and growing, growing. Is that the wish list, or is there something that you or the board talks about or the volunteers where it's like, boy, if we had this, we just had this, we could serve a lot more families. What would you say to that, Sally? So I would answer, and, Sally, you correct me if I'm wrong. I have a couple things on my wish list. One of the things on my wish list is to really be confident that we can sustain the work that we. That we're doing. Our budget has grown from 1.7 million to 4.3, and we've kept up with it thanks to the generosity of the community and the work that we're doing to sustain that. But it's a big number. And so that's on my wish list is to sustain it and to be able to meet the needs that are out there. I mean, Cecilia, who is our director of hunger prevention, gets called calls every day. And so, you know, our limitation is based on what we can afford to do and what we can afford to pay our staff. So, you know, you hate to say it's not about money, but it is about money and people, because we can only do the work with the resources that we have and so sustaining it. We're doing some strategic planning work right now, talking about doing some strategic planning work to figure out, okay, you know, what do we need? Where do we want to go? Like I said, I very much am not. There's so many great resources in our community and so many great nonprofits. I don't have to do everything. I don't need to do everything. I have no desire to do everything. But I want to make sure that in our corner of the world, we're making the greatest impact in the greatest way that we can. So, [00:46:48] Speaker E: Maureen, at great risk, I'm going to suggest an additional response to John's earlier question. [00:46:54] Speaker C: Please. [00:46:55] Speaker E: Your Question. John reminded me of that old hymn that they will know we are Christians by our love. ARM in ARM has been incredibly active as a founder of the Marissa County Food Security Leaders Group, which works collaboratively to address unmet needs, finds ways to ensure there aren't gaps, that there aren't things that the organizations are blind to, and really the organizations sit together to work collaboratively and creatively to address those needs. What's been distinctive about ARM in arm's participation in that is, is that the temptation is to get to operational issues very quickly, to think about units of need and budgets and not to think about people in a holistic, in a compassionate way. And that's what ARM in ARM has brought to the table each time. That prophetic voice that uniquely. I don't want to say because it's a secular organization, but a uniquely loving Christian approach to those issues that has been so instrumental in the progress for that Marissa County Food Security Group to be really the leader in the state and a regional approach to these issues. The reason why each organization doesn't have to do everything, but can rely on each other and to think about people not again as units, but as important parts of our community, as our neighbors. So thank you for that. [00:48:16] Speaker B: Well, thank you. That's a great answer. And it's true. I mean, you can't do this work without faith and love. And you can't work for ARM in ARM if you don't have faith and love. And that's really evident in everybody that works for us, in our board, in our staff, in our volunteers. And, you know, I say it all the time. Every bag of groceries is hope for a family and it's love. And. And I feel like the work we do really is an expression of love. [00:48:50] Speaker A: So thank you very, very, very much.