Cedar Village Residents Make Easter Baskets for Children in Need

Children across the country enjoyed colorful Easter baskets filled with candy this weekend. Thanks to the efforts of a group of women from the Cedar Village at residential community, some 60 children in need got to partake in the springtime holiday tradition.

Linda Gould, a Cedar Village resident and treasurer of the Kitchen at St. Mark’s in Keansburg, organized the Easter basket effort for the children who regularly visit the nonprofit soup kitchen.

“This is our sixth year doing it at Cedar Village. The ladies pack up the Easter baskets and the Kitchen at St. Mark’s gives them out,” she said.

Gould began the charitable endeavor on her own nearly a decade ago. After moving to Cedar Village, she decided to involve the residents who participate in the community’s regular ladies’ teas. The women have been assisting in the effort ever since.

Flyers were distributed at the Cedar Village clubhouse inviting residents to donate candy, and on Thursday afternoon, about 10 women took part in packaging the Easter baskets.

“It’s a fun, social thing. We do this and we give [the Kitchen at St. Mark’s] cookies at Christmas time,” Gould said.

In past years, the group would prepare 100 baskets. And while the number of clients who need the soup kitchen’s services remains great, the children who receive meals at the Kitchen at St. Mark’s have been getting older and only 60 baskets were needed this year, according to Gould. The soup kitchen provided the Easter gifts to families with children along with the holiday food baskets given to pantry clients.

For Gould, helping the Kitchen at St. Mark’s is a labor of love.

“I get more out of it than I think the kids do,” she said.

The nonprofit, located at Myrtle Avenue and Kennedy Way in Keansburg, provides hot meals six days a week and food pantry services, as well as opportunities for clients to speak to a social worker from the Monmouth County Department of Human Services or a nurse from the Visiting Nurse Association of New Jersey.

The Kitchen at St. Mark’s accepts credit card donations online, and checks may be sent to the following address: Kitchen at St. Mark’s, P.O. Box 193, Keansburg, NJ 07734. Donations of non-perishable food items are also accepted. For information on food donations or for tips on how to organize a food drive for the Kitchen at St. Mark’s, call 732-495-5227.