On September 10th, many Stockton College students and faculty members gathered in the Campus Center early in the morning, eager to offer their volunteer services at Stockton’s 8th Annual Day of Service. A wide variety of service projects were performed both on and off campus, with some students traveling to the Noyes Museum in Oceanville, NJ, the Absecon Lighthouse, and other locations. I was involved with Mire Ministries and worked both on and off campus to help bring food to the hungry at Brown Park in Atlantic City.
Led by Pastor Ray Laird and his wife, Beverly Laird, the group of about twenty people assembled to begin the job. Many of the group’s volunteers were current members of the Stockton Christian Fellowship and were familiar with the tasks ahead of them. Those who were unfamiliar with the food runs were welcomed and introduced to the group. With many helping hands, we brought in loaves of bread, cases of water, peanut butter, jelly, paper bags, bananas, cookies, totes, and napkins into the Campus Center Event Room and set up work stations to begin assembling bagged lunches to bring to the park. Working as an assembly line, some members of the group made sandwiches while others put bananas, water, and snacks in brown bags. After creating approximately two hundred lunches, the group went to the Mire Ministries van carrying filled totes: some filled with meals, some with socks.
After a twenty minute drive to the park, we set up tables to serve as stations for handing out lunches and socks to those in need. Many people were at the park in response to fliers that were put up about the free lunch. Although another group was offering hot food to the hungry, lines quickly started at the tables as people waited to get bagged lunches and new, clean socks. Many people approached the table with smiling faces as they expressed gratitude for the time and effort that the group had invested. In addition to attending tables, some students cleaned up garbage around the park, while others walked around the park greeting people and handing out food. Quickly, there was no more food or socks to distribute and we departed for our return to Stockton College.
This experience was very new to me, as well as to several members of the group, and proved to be quite memorable. Other students and I were able to see the result of the work that we performed as we witnessed the gratitude of the hungry that gathered in the park. Pastor Ray Laird explained that the Stockton Christian Fellowship makes such trips on Saturdays once a month. Those who enjoy helping others and interacting with those in need directly may find this experience extremely rewarding and eye-opening.