'We were overlooked': Charity says its meals for homeless threatened by NJ plastic bag ban

Scott Fallon
NorthJersey.com

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago, volunteers for the longtime charity Family Promise of Bergen County have been handing out 150 hot meals in plastic bags each day to the hungry who were no longer able to eat at the county homeless shelter.

But the charity's organizers say the program is in jeopardy after they were denied an exemption by the state Department of Environmental Protection to a statewide plastic bag ban that begins Wednesday. They instead received a six-month extension and are now scrambling to lobby lawmakers to write a new bill that would exclude charities such as theirs.

"We were overlooked when this bill was being written," said Paul Shackford, president of the Family Promise board of trustees. "You have exemptions for newspaper bags and dry cleaner bags. I'd argue that bags for delivering meals to the homeless are also deserving."

Family Promise is among many charities that thought they might be free from the ban, but are not.

The ban, which also includes paper bags at supermarkets and plastic foam containers, plates and cups, is part of a years-long effort to cut down on litter that mars beaches and riverfronts throughout New Jersey.

Family Promise volunteer Rick Hampson delivers meals for those staying in motels in Bergen County.

Most of the attention has been on supermarkets, restaurants and other retailers, since the ban will change the way New Jerseyans shop. And with good reason. 

The original law makes no mention of charities, food pantries or nonprofit groups in its 4,000 words, and it seems to confine the ban strictly to businesses. "No store or foodservice business shall provide or sell a single-use plastic carryout bag to a customer," reads the key line of the law.

But a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in March extends the ban to food pantries, which it defines as "a nonprofit organization or government entity that distributes food to individuals in need of assistance."

In emails last month to Family Promise and another to a thrift shop in Toms River, DEP officials in charge of implementing the ban confirmed that it now covers the charities. The law gives them a six-month extension and provides $600,000 to give 500,000 reusable bags to food banks.

While the reusable bags provided by the government may be useful to some charities, Shackford said it won't work for his. Many homeless people may not remember to return them each day, or may instead reuse them to hold their belongings, he said.

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Before the pandemic, Family Promise served dinner to those staying at the Bergen County homeless shelter in Hackensack and to anyone who walked in off the street.

When the shelter was forced to close in April 2020, Family Promise began delivering food to homeless residents — who had been placed in motels — and providing takeout meals to those who came by the shelter on River Street.

Meals are usually provided each day by a house of worship in Bergen County. Entrees such as meatloaf with potatoes and vegetables are put into a carton, which is then placed in a plastic bag. A second plastic bag is used to hold water, utensils, dessert and fruit. 

The meals are distributed room by room at a motel and hung on a doorknob if a person is out, since many of the motel units have entrances only from outside. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the group has bagged more than 175,000 meals. 

Organizers have tried paper bags but found they are often not strong enough to hold all the food, they can fall apart if a carton inside opens and spills, and they can't be easily left on a doorknob, Shackford said. 

"Sometimes our people are in their motel rooms, but oftentimes they are not," he said. "We're not leaving it on the floor for them. We do not want these meals to go to waste. For many people, it's the only food they can depend on each day."

Shackford has appealed to the staff of first lady Tammy Murphy, who visited the charity in July 2020 and handed out dinners in plastic bags. His request was forwarded to a DEP official, who wrote to him in late April that his charity had to abide by the ban.

"I’m a big believer in reusable bags, and I use them all the time when I shop," he said. "But it doesn't work in every situation like ours here at Family Promise. 

"If someone knew about this, I have to believe we would have been exempt," he said. "I think we have a compelling argument."

Scott Fallon has covered the COVID-19 pandemic since its onset in March 2020. To get unlimited access to the latest news about the pandemic's impact on New Jersey,  please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: fallon@northjersey.com

Twitter: @newsfallon