A New Jersey group is providing hundreds of homebound seniors with a quality breakfast and dinner each day, as many of these homebound seniors cannot leave their homes due to the coronavirus.
The group, North Jersey Mutual Aid, prepared more than 20 meals for the elderly at the IHOP on Main Street in Paterson, New Jersey, on Saturday morning and then delivered them to the Joseph Conner Senior Center, News 12 New Jersey reported.
IHOP provided the meals for free, and the group said there was no direct contact with the seniors. A representative from the senior center received the food and distributed it from within.
Organizers say eight to ten volunteers will also distribute 100 dinners to seniors in Paterson, Hudson County, and Newark.
Zellie Thomas, a community organizer and teacher in the Paterson public schools, created the mutual aid network not too long after the coronavirus pandemic began in order to help seniors and those with vulnerable immune systems who may not have a way to take care of themselves.
“We knew that in general, the most marginalized among us have the least access to resources, and COVID-19 made that situation even worse,” Thomas, founder of North Jersey Mutual Aid, told NorthJersey.com. “Especially our seniors, who may not have the mobility or means to go grocery shopping or acquire food.”
The group receives meals as food donations from local restaurants as well as monetary donations.
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