NEWS

OSHA training saves lives.  The government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration designs programs that share critical knowledge about the power tools, ladders, and chemicals so useful to work—but so potentially lethal.  That’s why CoFiA has worked over the years to provide this training to our community.  The pandemic shut us down for a couple of years, but we’re getting going again.  That’s why our social-service coordinator Angelica Martinez met with CoFiA volunteer Lela Squitieri and Pastor Daniel at Palisades Park’s First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, December 20, 2022.  Pastor Daniel’s Korean congregation generously provides hot lunches to the workers every Tuesday.  Angelica’s goal: to recruit OSHA trainees from the group.  CoFiA will arrange the training and offer scholarships.  In the photo, left to right, Lela and Angelica with the workers.

As you know, CoFiA has been helping with a dinner program held at the Palisades Park Public Library underground parking garage, five evenings a week. The program is sponsored by a group of Korean young people, and CoFiA volunteers go regularly to assist. Anyone is welcome–just show up and introduce yourself. About 4 p.m. is probably good.

About 200 people continue to participate, Mondays through Friday. A group of Palisades Park restaurants prepare delicious hot meals, which are distributed on a first-come first-served basis. After one or two incidents when far too many people arrived than could be served (around 300 once!) the group has continued with about 200 hungry people attending.

Thanks for all the generous folks who have contributed to this effort. It has made a lot of difference to a lot of people!

PANDEMIC EASES, HUNGER GROWS

As the worst of the covid-19 pandemic seems to be abating, we are all now facing the terrible aftermaths. Unemployment, lost housing, ongoing illness are prevalent–but maybe the most immediate and terrifying is the increase in hunger. CoFiA has been working with other groups to provide a hot evening meal in the garage of the Palisades Park library to whoever turns up.

For some time there have been about 250 people arriving in the late afternoon. The program, called Our Community Dinner Table, purchases meals from local restaurants–the Guatemalan restaurant Esquina Chapina among others–for $7.50 per person, and distributes the food to whoever comes. One day as many as 300 people came and sadly the program ran out of food.

Obviously this is an expensive operation and faces an uncertain future. As the need becomes ever more apparent, the young Korean brother and sister who are the organizers reached out to increase the number of days of operation from three to four and now five. CoFiA has donated as much as possible, and a Korean organization in California sent a much needed and bountiful donation of $10,000.

We are also hearing accounts of individuals in our network who are needing help. Several Leonia residents donate their Meals-on-Wheels allotments to people who need food. Co-Chair Carolyn Sobering picks up the food, and our staff person Angelica arranges a drop-off. A big help!

Other people are struggling to pay their rent. Angelica is reminding our friends about the governor’s no-eviction order (Law 3859), and she also suggests they contact Make-the-Road New Jersey, a community organization that has on-staff attorneys. Wage theft continues and CoFiA provides counsel and contacts as possible. Angelica also continues to connect workers with people needing help. Most recently she placed two workers in a landscaping job.

CoFiA is delighted to be able to help out with a new effort, called Our Community Dinner Table, a wonderful food bank staffed largely by Korean-American young people in Palisades Park.Four afternoons a week, they distribute food in the parking area underneath the Palisades Park library. The Pal Park Mayor, Chis Chung, is a big supporter. It helps not only the community but the local restaurants from which they buy the food. CoFiA was able to donate $2000 as an initial gift to the project.

Anyone who wishes to help with this could send a check payable to the Community of Friends in Action, with Pandemic Appeal on the memo line. Mail it to us at PO Box 313, Leonia, NJ 07605. Donations can also be made through PayPal.

Notes on CoFiA happenings:

In April our Staff Person, Angelica, has been counseling a community member who is having trouble with his roommates and is afraid they will report him to the police. After conversation by phone, he decided to go to the police himself, but they assured him that they cannot arrest him when there is no complaint. He was very relieved. He then decided he needed to find somewhere else to live, so Angelica is helping with that search.

Angelica and the rest of us are concerned about the impact of Murphy’s Executive Order No. 122, stopping all non-essential construction projects and further limiting essential retail businesses and industries. This is another big blow to our communities; many small businesses such as restaurants and beauty salons are already closed and our friends are out of work. Since few have valid work authorization they are really facing difficult times. CoFiA has sent a text blast to the workers (delegados) and also made a series of phone calls,

advising them that it is not safe or legal to continue to gather on street corners.

CoFia has received a few requests for help from our worker friends, and have been able to make a few small grants. If you know of people who are hard up, let them know they can make an appeal for emergency funds and our Board will consider them.

CoFiA has established a PANDEMIC APPEAL campaign to solicit funds to help those most in need at this difficult time. See a copy of the appeal on this web site.

CoFiA continues to look for a new Treasurer, to replace Donna Maxwell, who is retiring. Please see the post on our web site describing the position.

CoFiA APPEAL– effects of pandemic on local immigrants

We all know that the current COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting all our lives and our economy.  We at CoFiA are especially aware of the impact on our immigrant friends.  Many are undocumented, and therefore do not have access to even the very minimal funds that are being made available to U.S. citizens to help weather the storm.  Our friends are also living at the margins, economically, and do not have funds to carry them over from month to month if they lose jobs or homes or have unanticipated illnesses.  They are also not eligible for health care assistance, either in the form of government help through programs like Medicaid or Medicare, or more local efforts.

Workers continue to look for work wherever and whenever they can.   We are hearing of more and more desperate needs for help as work dries up and expenses continue.

Please help by contributing to this special COFIA PANDEMIC APPEAL by sending a donation of whatever amount you can, payable to the Community of Friends in Action, P.O. Box 313, Leonia, NJ 07605. Use the tear slip below if helpful. We will divide the money up carefully, responding to requests for assistance as we receive them.

THANKS.

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COFIA PANDEMIC APPEAL

In response to the current pandemic crisis which is hitting the immigrant community especially hard, CoFiA is requesting donations, payable to the Community of Friends in Action, with Pandemic Donation on the memo line

Please complete and return this tear slip with your contribution.

Name__________________________________________________________________________

Email or postal address ____________________________________________________________

Contribution (payable to CoFiA) enclosed:

______25    _________50 _____________100  ___________ other

______________one time donation    ________________monthly donation, 2020

Or send by PayPal.

Our long-time CoFiA member, friend and treasurer, Donna Maxwell, is retiring from the position at the end of the year. Donna has been a stalwart manager of our funds, working closely with our bookkeeper Norm Smith to be sure everything is in order. We are enormously grateful.

Now we must look for someone to replace her! The job is not particularly time-consuming but does require the kind of careful attention to detail that Donna has consistently provided.

Here is a brief description of the responsibilities of the treasurer:
*Write and forward checks as necessary (to staff members, etc.)
* Pay bills
*Maintain and balance check register
*Inform the volunteer bookkeeper of transactions, compare balances, rectify as needed
*Check mail at Post Office and forward as necessary
*Deposit incoming revenue at the bank
*Maintain files of financial records, including bank statements
*Attend to tax and charitable filings.

Please let our co-chairs (Ruth Swinney and Carolyn Sobering) know if you could assume this responsibility, or if you have suggestions of someone who might be able to do it.

Angelica called all the CoFiA “delegados” (Saturday night workers group) and reports that none of them told her they are sick or know of people who are sick from the virus.  Thank you, Angelica, for staying in touch with them!

Here are some miscellaneous pics from various CoFiA events over the years.

Members of the CoFiA Saturday night group (the delegados) participated in a 30-hour OSHA training program the weekends of February 8 and 9 and February 15 and 16, 2002. The sessions  were organized by Make the Road New Jersey. All participants who successfully complete the full course were awarded an official OSHA certificate. These certificates are highly valued by the worker community since they document the worker’s competence based on the training.

Members of the CoFiA Saturday night workers group (the delegados) participated in a 30-hour OSHA training program. They recently received their certificates of successful completion of the program. The photograph shows them receiving their certificates at Grand Shilla deli in Palisades Park, on February 29. These OSHA certificates are highly valued by the recipients because they certify to prospective employers that the workers are well-trained and competent–and safe–in the jobs for which they are employed.