Rest, Relax & Enjoy!  Labor Day (Labour Day in Canada) in the United States is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country.

We are extremely grateful for all generous provisions we receive from all of our generous providers each week. Most of what we receive is fresh, perishable, wholesome, nourishing and nutritious foods. We are grateful!

We received fresh plumcots from Trader Joe’s which is a hybrid between a plum and apricot. Delicious! Grateful! Blessed!

In June, our summer intern Nick arrived to help at Bentley. After training and introducing him to our generous providers, Nick became our driver picking up generous provisions in our recently donated box truck.  Nick also helped load and unload, sort, pick and place provisions away, broke down the cardboard boxes, stocked shelves, worked with pallets of beverages and other assorted work. We will miss Nick as he will be going back to college. Just when he has mastered everything!  Thank you, Nick, for your dedication and helping hands.  We will miss you!  Nick wrote a blog below:

“I graduated from Hillsborough High school in 2014. I am currently going to Eastern Michigan University where I am studying health and physical education and special education and will be a sophomore this fall. I am also on the cross country and indoor/outdoor track team. Bentley has really opened my eyes to the things that are going on in our community that you normally wouldn’t think are happening. Every day I leave Bentley, I leave with the feeling of knowing I am helping families who really need it. That is one of the most rewarding feelings you could have”.

We thank our generous provider farms for providing us with such fresh, delicious and nourishing vegetables.  Take a look at these beautiful eggplants, zucchini and tomatoes! We certainly are grateful as so many families are receiving healthy, fresh and nutritious foods.

There is nothing like farm fresh produce and fresh eggs to eat that comes directly from our extremely hard-working generous provider farms.  Thank you for your delicious, nourishing and nutritious produce and eggs that feed so many struggling families in the Central New Jersey region.  Making a huge difference in the lives of so many, we thank Norz Hill Farm, Von Thun Farm, Orchard Farm Organics, Giamarese Farm, Griggstown Farm, Montgomery Friends Farmer’s Market, Drake’s Farm and Farmers Against Hunger for their generous provisions.  We all are certainly truly blessed.

We are in need of additional volunteers to help at our warehouse distribution facility doing various tasks associated with generous food provisions coming in to help sort, pick, pack and place in cold storage equipment, to store and place on the shelves.  This is necessary weekly to get ready for distribution to participant families in the Bentley program.

Volunteers are needed to help distribute certain products to families when they come to pickup provisions and shop during specific hours during the week. Please contact us at 908-227-0684.  We certainly are grateful for the helping hands of all volunteers who do such a great job!

A work team from Insmed came out after the rains on a spectacular Thursday to glean vegetables at Norz Hill Farm.  Thank you so much for your helping hands in filling up the bushel baskets with farm, fresh produce!  We certainly are thankful to Insmed and Norz Hill Farm.

We certainly are so grateful for the farm, fresh produce from our generous provider Von Thun Farm.  Ed and James are helping to prepare and pack delicious, generous provisions of produce to us so the participant families and their children can eat and enjoy fresh, nourishing and nutritious vegetables and fruits.  Thank you!

A work team from Bloomberg of new, young employees came out to the farm to help string rows of tomato plants, pick sunflowers and assorted farm, fresh produce. We thank Bloomberg for providing helping hands to us for this work team’s first farm workday! These young people certainly did an amazing job.  Thank you!

Without a large transportation vehicle and a driver, provisions cannot get from Point A to Point B.  We pickup on a weekly schedule from our generous providers donated surplus provisions personally and we know first hand what takes place in traveling to the providers, loading the truck with generous provisions, driving to other pickups, loading the truck and driving back to the facility where it is unloaded.  Then, each crate, box, pallet or bag is broken down, sorted, packed and placed to where it needs to be: refrigerator, freezer, shelves or stored.

Bentley donates its surplus to other agencies in our region, re-distributing generous provisions to their at-risk vulnerable populations.  These agencies pickup generous provisions at our warehouse distribution facility and their drivers travel to our location in their truck and load the generous provisions.  Without these drivers doing this work, provisions cannot be picked up and transported back to the agency. These drivers play a very important role in the process.

We give recognition to these drivers that are hard-working, dedicated to their work, their charitable organization and who are kind, personable and thankful.  We are certainly thankful to know them and are honored and privileged to serve.