We usually see them around the holidays, but right now they’re helping many in Newark, in all kinds of ways.
The Salvation Army says feeding the hungry during the pandemic has been job one, it has served five times as many meals in Newark over the past several weeks as it did in the same period of 2019. Major James Betts says the hotline the Army has in Newark for people to call for food is also getting calls for another kind of help.
"A large number of the people that are calling are actually saying to us, is there somebody I can talk to about what I’m going through, more of pastoral and emotional care, and we’ve been pretty blown away by the numbers of folks struggling with that."
Betts says 40 percent of the people coming to its pantries are people who’ve never had to before.