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The Meadowlands Area YMCA set out to raise $700,000 to endow its food pantry program at its recent Heart of the Meadowlands Gala—a goal it surpassed.

With $140,000 raised at the May 11 event, held at Il Villaggio in Carlstadt, the Y said it raised more than $846,000 in contributions from more than 100 companies and individuals. That includes a $250,000 naming gift from Russo Development CEO Ed Russo and the company’s Russo Family Foundation for what is now the Russo Family Food Pantry.

For their commitments to the Meadowlands and their generous food pantry donations, Russo was honored at the gala along with John Saraceno Jr., co-founder and managing principal of Onyx Equities LLC; Jose Lozano, chief of staff and vice president for corporate services and governance at Hackensack Meridian Health; and Table to Table, which provides meals to those experiencing food insecurity through the Y’s monthly drive-up food distribution program.

“The Y is a lot of things to a lot of people, and within six years of opening our doors we’re not only a center for fitness, wellness and day care – we are one of the largest social services agencies in Bergen County,” Ron Simoncini, chairman of the YMCA for the past 11 years, said in a statement.

According to Simoncini, the fundraising goal wasn’t the only milestone surpassed surrounding the event: more than 300 attendees registered to attend the gala, which had targeted 240 guests.

The Y described food insecurity in the metropolitan area as a sign of the times. Since the onset of COVID-19, The Meadowlands Area YMCA said its food pantry has distributed more than 2.5 million meals, mostly through volunteer coordination.

The food pantry primarily serves Bergen and Hudson counties with weekly service. Its monthly food distribution program has a broader geography, open to anyone who gets in line, a queue the organization says frequently stands 300 cars long.

“After the gala we will continue to cultivate support for the food pantry as our intention is for it to operate in perpetuity,” said David Kisselback, CEO of the Meadowlands Area YMCA.

“We want to make sure we satisfy both cohorts [local and regional] because we see license plates from out of state that will wait in line for three-hours to get a $20 box of food, and that shows how drastic the situation has become,” Kisselback added, regarding the pantry’s two-pronged approach.

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