Merchantville leaders shut down a food pantry for the first time in over 30 years due to traffic issues

For the first time in more than 30 years, the food pantry at Grace Episcopal Church in Merchantville did not open its doors for its weekly distribution on Wednesday.

Leaders of the borough of nearly 4,000 in Camden County shut it down and ordered the church to come up with a plan to deal with what they’ve described as congestion created by the estimated 300 cars that queue up for food — a number that’s been increasing as food insecurity in New Jersey and around the United States grows. The pantry feeds as many as 900 families a week.

Mayor Edward Brennan said in an email on Wednesday that the borough wasn’t making any official statements. He added that the borough had been speaking with Grace Episcopal and others, and is “actively working towards a plan that allows us to achieve the goal of helping those in need in a safe and responsible way.”

In a statement issued by the borough last week, the pantry closing was called a “pause” until “public safety and public nuisance” issues could be resolved. It added that borough leaders were reacting to concerns of the public.

The Rev. Bob Fitzpatrick, the church rector, said Wednesday that the “sudden shutdown was shocking,” and that he was “trying to get a handle on what the borough wants us to change” to allow the pantry to reopen.

“Some of the things they’re asking are difficult and possibly not viable,” he added. “The borough will not allow cars to line up on public streets or in public parking lots.” He said he wished the borough would have permitted the pantry to remain open while its leaders executed incremental changes, such as staggering pantry days and hours.

Apparently borough officials are also concerned “about the optics of poverty in town,” Fitzpatrick continued. “The mayor talked about seeing all the hungry people and the pallets of food at the pantry and he thought it looked like a picture of the New Orleans Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.

“We want to address safety issues regarding the long lines, but we’re not able to fix their anxiety over the visibility of poverty. That’s not our job.”

Fitzpatrick also indicated that the borough appeared to be exerting pressure on the church: “Borough officials laid out the wide range of regulatory tools at their disposal to shape the behavior of the church — zoning changes, violations, fire inspections.

“And then they said that our cooperation would make it unnecessary for the borough to take those further steps.”

Much of the reaction of hunger and poverty experts to the shuttering of the pantry has been unfavorable.

“Food is a human right, and I don’t know why we’re abandoning people in need,“ said Jonathan Miller, COO of Share Food Program in North Philadelphia, one of the area’s two largest food banks, along with Philabundance. Miller has lived in Merchantville for five years.

“This doesn’t speak to Merchantville’s motto — ‘Small town with a big heart.’ It’s punitive, not supportive, and it feels like the borough’s authorities just don’t want to help.

“I do this for a living [distribute food]. It’s a personal thing for me. For it to happen on the streets I traverse to take my 6-year-old daughter to school — it’s not what I’m raising her to be like.

“It doesn’t sit well with me at all.”

Joel Berg, CEO of the national nonprofit Hunger Free America, said, “I’ve never heard of a traffic excuse shutting a food pantry in the United States before. To have your first reaction be to ban feeding activities is a bit much.”

Ken Regal, executive director of Just Harvest, a hunger-fighting nonprofit in Pittsburgh, agreed. “I’m just astonished that traffic would be enough of an issue to close the pantry,” he said. “If traffic was being generated by a parade, a popular dance club, or even the opening of a new Home Depot, there’d be celebrating in the streets and people would be showing up for ribbon cuttings.

“The last thing elected officials should do is shut down food distribution for people in need.”

On Merchantville Facebook community pages, some residents have been asking how the lines for food were any different than those of parents picking up children from school.

Brandon Trombetta, executive director of the Souderton-based Keystone Opportunity Center, which battles food and housing insecurity, called the Grace pantry shutdown a “drastic move.” He added, “You’re taking lifelines away from people, making bad situations in people’s homes worse.”

The importance of pantries has escalated as rents and food prices rise.

“Food costs increased 11% in 2022 and 5% in 2023,” said Sheldon Good, a director of Manna on Main Street, an antihunger nonprofit in Lansdale. “And last year, all Pennsylvania households on SNAP (formerly food stamps) lost $95 a month when pandemic-related increases were scaled back.”

As he decides how to proceed, Fitzpatrick reflected that, while “church begins with people praying on their knees on Sunday, it doesn’t end there.

“Church is feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and doing all we can to share love.”