Saint Gregory church has existed for 35 years in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. It is a church that is open five days a week and has three major holiday distributions. The pantry is a 100% volunteer organization and it gets extremely busy around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The people who take time out of their lives to help consist of students of all ages, boy and girl scouts, sports teams and other organizations. 

Saint Gregory’s Pantry is known for serving around 50 families per week with full meals. On holidays, St. Gregory’s can serve approximately 300 families! High school students are a huge help to this organization. Students will be excused from school for the day to help unload trucks upon their arrival, and guide the participants of the food pantry to collect the correct items. Food items also need to be driven to the homes of people and dropped off. 

Mrs. Ritter looks foward to this trip every year, explaining, “This is my favorite time of year. It’s a great way for us teachers to get involved and to give back to the community!” 

This is a big event for Point Pleasant Boro High School as the senior students, as well as students from other grades, take the day off from school and to visit Saint Gregory’s church only five minutes away from the school. There are a few teachers that are in charge of gathering up kids to have volunteer. If you attend PPBHS, just talk to Mrs. Ritter, Mr. Grainer, Mrs. Boska, or any other administrator for this organization to get involved. It’s really easy to become a part of the food pantry trip, especially if you have a driver’s license and it is a great way to give back to your community this holiday season.