New Jersey
With no supermarket for residents of Atlantic City, New Jersey and hospitals create mobile groceries
In this seaside resort, where $5 billion worth of in-person and online gambling gets done each year, there still is not a supermarket.
People who live in Atlantic City must either drive off the island to a mainland store, take public transportation — whose cost eats away at the amount left for food — or shop in pricey, poorly stocked corner stores in their own city.
A much-touted, heavily subsidized plan to build what would be the city’s first supermarket in nearly 20 years fell apart earlier this year. Now, the state and a hospital system are sending a converted school bus laden with fresh food available for purchase into the city as a temporary solution.
Virtua Health brought a modified transit bus to a poor neighborhood in Atlantic City on Friday as part of its “Eat Well” program, funded by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
The program aims to bring high quality food and fresh produce to economically deprived areas that lack meaningful access to healthy food. Atlantic City is second on the list of 50 New Jersey communities designed as “food deserts” due to lack of access to such food.
Delorese Butley-Whaley, 62, was delighted to board the bus to buy a half gallon of milk and a loaf of bread for a total of $3.
She usually walks 30 to 45 minutes to a local corner food store, straining her bad knees, or takes the bus there in bad weather. Sometimes she ventures to a full-fledged supermarket on the mainland in Absecon, a $10 cab ride in each direction. That quickly eats into her food budget.
“We don’t have a real supermarket here,” she said. “This is something we all need. I love this. It’s really convenient. I was able to get everything I needed for the rest of the week right here.”
Last week, in her first trip to the bus, she bought salmon.
“Salmon!” she said. “Imagine that!”
April Schetler, who runs the program for Virtua Health, said it is designed to fill part of the void in communities without a real supermarket like Atlantic City and Camden. All its food is sold at 30% to 50% below normal retail prices.
There is no income restriction on the program; anyone who shows up can shop, she said.
“We try to bake dignity into everything we do,” Schetler said. “By not asking for financial information, we’re providing a different experience.
“We come right to them, in their neighborhoods,” she said. “It can be a $25 cab ride just to get you and your groceries home.”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way in Atlantic City, where in Nov. 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy and top elected officials held a much-ballyhooed ground breaking ceremony for a new ShopRite supermarket that was to be built on vacant land not far from the casinos.
The state was willing to commit $19 million in public funds to see the project across the finish line. But construction never started and the project fell apart. The state said earlier this year it would seek new bids for another store.
A message seeking comment left with the developer, Village Super Market Inc., was not immediately returned Friday.
The Virtua food bus is one of two similar efforts paid for by the state with $5.5 million in funding. AtlanticCare, another southern New Jersey hospital system, is adding a mobile grocery to its food pantry program that also will include classes on health education, cooking classes and incentives to buy healthy foods.
“People come here to have fun, they go to the casinos,” said JoAnn Melton, 42, who also shops at a corner store she says is beset by loiterers and drunks from a nearby liquor store. “But what about those that actually live here? We’re just trying our best to live and raise a family.”
The grocery bus “is awesome,” she said. She bought dishwasher detergent, bleach, coffee, lemons, bananas and bread, all for $16. She often pays $5 for two sad-looking bananas at the corner store.
“We really need this,” she said. “This is good for us.”
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Strong wind gusts are causing power outages, road closures and downed trees all across New Jersey on Monday evening.
National Weather Service posted a wind advisory alert warning that some New Jersey counties, such as Morris and Sussex, could be experiencing strong and gusty winds throughout the evening.
Strong winds have developed this afternoon with peak gusts of 35 to 45 miles per hour, said National Weather Service. Tree damage and isolated power outages could come from these winds NWS warns.
Road closures from fallen trees
Many North Jersey towns are dealing with road closures due to trees that have fallen because of the extreme wind gusts. Franklin Lakes, Hawthorne, Belleville and Parsippany-Troy Hills have all reported some road closures due to fallen trees from wind gusts.
A downed tree on 9W northbound, north of Palisades Interstate Parkway in Alpine, caused the right lane to be closed as of 7:12 p.m. on Monday, the NJ DOT reported.
More: How to tell if a tree is at risk of falling – from an NJ tree expert
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The three major power companies were reporting outages in North Jersey Monday evening.The hardest hit counties were Morris and Essex with over 2,600 in each county without power.
Here is a look at the some of the towns being affected at 6:45 p.m.:
- Montville – 1,401 (JCP&L)
- Livingston – 780 (JCP&L)
- Hackensack – 545 (PSE&G)
- Oakland – 435 (Orange & Rockland)
- Parsippany Troy Hills – 315 (JCP&L)
- West Milford – 248 (Orange & Rockland)
- Mount Olive – 223 (JCP&L)
The state’s largest firefighters union has endorsed Newark Council President LaMonica McIver for the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 10th district.
McIver and ten other Democrats are competing in a July 16 special primary for the chance to fill the unexpired term of Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark), who died on April 24 at age 65.
“As president of the Newark City Council, LaMonica has shown a willingness to always communicate with the public safety professionals who keep that city safe,” said Eddie Donnelly, the New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association president. “LaMonica listens, and puts her words of support into action.”
Donnelly praised Payne and his father, the late Rep. Donald M. Payne, Sr. (D-Newark), for carrying themselves with “class and dignity” and said they were “never afraid to stand up” for their constituents.
“We know that LaMonica will serve the same way,” he said.
Donnelly said that he’s ready to put the full weight of his 5,000-member union, which includes EMTs and dispatchers, behind McIver.
“An endorsement from NJFMBA is not just words on a piece of paper, it means mobilization and real support,” he said. “Between now and July 16th we will be boots on the ground in Essex, Hudson, Morris, and Union counties, and, ultimately in the voting booth, to help send LaMonica McIver to Congress.”
The Princeton Review an educational services company known for its yearly school rankings released its 20th annual list of the Best Value Colleges for 2024.
The list also recognizes the top private and public schools seven ranking categories such as Overall; Financial Aid; Career Placement; Internships; Alumni Networks; Making an Impact; Students with No Demonstrated Need.
These colleges were chosen based on data collected from over 650 administrators and student surveys and from PayScale.com on alumni career and salary statistics between fall 2023 through spring 2024.
The information was weighted against over 40 data points that included academics, costs, financial aid, debt, grad rates, and career/salary data according to the report.
Out 209 schools that made the Best Value list five of them are from New Jersey.
“We highly recommend the schools that made our Best Value Colleges lists for 2024” Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review said in a press release.
“They share three compelling distinctions. All provide outstanding academics. All support their undergraduates with stellar career services. All demonstrate impressive commitments to affordability via extremely generous financial aid for students with need and/or a comparatively low sticker price. Also, good news for students considering these schools: 42% of the colleges admit 50% or more of their applicants.”
Best Value Colleges for 2024
This list is unranked but share three exceptional features:
- The College of New Jersey
- Madison University
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Princeton University
Three New Jersey colleges also ranked in the some of the seven categories ranking list:
- Princeton University ranked No. 2 in the Top 50 Best Value College (Private Schools) and No. 4 in the Top 20 Best Career Placement (Private Schools)
- Stevens Institute of Technology ranked No. 12 in the top 20 Best Career Placement (Private Schools)
- The New Jersey Institute of Technology ranked No. 23 in the Top 50 Best Value Colleges (Public Schools).
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