Elijah's Promise Chef Embraces Clients on Thanksgiving While SNAP Cuts Loom

Chef Pam is the head cook at the Elijah’s Promise Community Soup Kitchen which serves over 100,000 free meals a year. It is open seven days a week and has not missed a meal serve in over twenty years. Pam, a former guest of the Soup Kitchen, lives with the mantra that “Love lives in my kitchen.”

Pam staffed Thanksgiving working with volunteers to serve up a feast. However, when her shift ended she wanted to do more for some of the guests who she sensed needed an extra serving of love. So when she packed up her stuff to leave she also loaded up a van full of Soup Kitchen guests to bring back to her home for Thanksgiving dinner with her family. And, as if that was not enough, she also took up a collection to put one of the guests up in a hotel so that he did not have to spend Thanksgiving night on the streets.

The name Elijah’s Promise is based on the biblical story of the Prophet Elijah who was hungry and asked a widow if she would share her food with him.  She said she only had enough food for herself and her son, but he promised her that if she shared her food with him that he would make sure she never went hungry again. And so it is that Chef Pam and her family lived the values of this story by sharing what they had with those who in need.

On the same morning I learned of Pam’s story, I attended a press conference being held by Congressman Pallone at the Elijah’s Promise Community Soup Kitchen.

Congressman Pallone was joined by Mayor Cahill, Assemblyman Chivukula, Adele LaTourette, and Rev. Lisanne Finston to decry proposed Congressional cuts to the SNAP the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (previously known as Food Stamps). SNAP provides a basic nutrition benefit to millions of low-income Americans. 

The proposed $39 billion in cuts to the SNAP program would come on top of $5 billion in across-the-board SNAP benefit cuts that went into effect on November 1st due to an expiring provision included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Cuts to the SNAP program will be catastrophic to those who depend on them to put food on their table and in the emergency food system. Charity alone will not solve the needs of our hungry neighbors; If we want to ensure our hungry neighbors have access to food, the reality is at this time we will need government assistance to ensure that happens.

I am inspired every day at Elijah’s Promise, but Pam’s story – coupled with the dreadful reality that these cuts to the SNAP program may actually pass into law reminded me how important it is to advocate loudly for what you believe in. 

So tonight when I light the menorah with my family, we will be sitting as a family writing a letter to our Congressman opposing cuts to the SNAP program. I will then be calling and emailing my friends to ask them to also take a stand to support full funding for the SNAP program. It is my sincere hope when you read this that you too will make your voice heard and let your elected officials know how you feel.

Lean more about this issue at the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition website at http://www.njahc.org.