Vineland Elks donate $2,000 to soup kitchen, PAL programs

The Vineland Elks Lodge No. 1422 put money where the need is most immediate: inside Vineland's only free soup kitchen and into youth programs that keep children busy after school. A $2,000 donation from the lodge will help Spirit & Truth Ministries' Soup Kitchen keep serving residents who are facing food insecurity, homelessness and other hard choices, while a separate $1,000 Elks gift has supported Police Athletic League, or PAL, programs for local young people.

Joseph Romano, president of the Vineland Elks, presented the $2,000 check to Matt Milam, president of Spirit & Truth Ministries, and Raquel Soto, the organization's executive director. The soup kitchen, a 501(c)(3) in the basement of First United Methodist Church at 7th and Landis avenues, says it has run a feeding program for more than 40 years and remains the only free soup kitchen in the city. NJ 211 lists the site at 700 E. Landis Ave. and says it serves hot sit-down meals, with monthly showers, haircuts and health screenings also available.

That service footprint shows why a small donation can still matter. In 2019, the kitchen served more than 39,000 meals, about 100 a day, a pace that reflects how many Vineland families continue to lean on a place that does more than hand out lunch. For people who walk in for a meal, the monthly showers and health screenings matter just as much as the food. They make the soup kitchen one of the few daily points of contact in Cumberland County for neighbors who may have nowhere else to turn.

The Elks also have backed PAL, which uses recreation, mentoring and positive engagement with law enforcement to reach young people before problems grow bigger. In December, Romano presented a separate $1,000 donation to PAL Director Officer Phillip Martinez, money made possible by an Elks National Foundation grant. The lodge has also received 2026 Gratitude Grants from the foundation to support youth, veterans and others in need, extending a pattern of grant-backed giving that keeps local programs moving.

That pattern matters in Vineland because basic services often depend on civic groups, not just public agencies or big charities. The lodge at 18 South 6th Street was instituted in 1922 and now has 92 members, a reminder that a century-old fraternal organization is still filling gaps in Cumberland County's safety net, one meal and one youth program at a time.