Since early January, when we were still adjusting to having lost our home of many years at Grace Church in Palisades Park, we have been distributing tickets for inexpensive lunches at two of the Guatemalan restaurants in town to the workers on the street. This has been a popular alternative to the lunch program, with more than 30 people taking advantage of it every Monday.
However, as has been customary, the need is diminishing as work is picking up, so we are discontinuing the program for this season. We are still looking for another site where we can offer lunches next fall.
As the photo shows, the lunch program not only provided a hot meal for hungry workers, it also gave us the opportunity to present programs on various topics important to immigrants in our communities. Here our friend Elias was discussing the opportunity for workers to participate in OSHA training sponsored by CoFiA. This training not only helps workers know more about how to be safe on the job, it also provides a very important certification card documenting that they have completed this course. Without the venue of the lunch program, we have no ready access to groups of workers.
So our search continues. Please help us by keeping your eyes open for a site somewhere on Broad Avenue between Palisades and Columbia, where we can provide these important services. And thanks!