By Allison Perrine
MONMOUTH COUNTY – The Fulfill food bank is asking the Monmouth County Commissioners for a $725,000 grant from American Rescue Plan funding the county expects to receive in the next few months.
The request came in a letter sent to the commissioners from Fulfill president and CEO Kim Guadagno, who said the county declined the 501(c)(3) nonprofit’s funding request during the first round of CARES Act allocations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Fulfill depends upon the generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government. Without this collective support, we could not meet the spike in demand and help ensure that no one goes to bed hungry,” Guadagno wrote in the letter dated March 17.
The commissioner director and deputy director, Thomas A. Arnone and Susan M. Kiley, responded in a statement contradicting Fulfill’s narrative. Apart from the letter, Fulfill declined to comment further on the matter.
FULFILL’S ACCOUNT
In Guadagno’s March 17 letter, she said Fulfill – formerly the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties – served 136,000 individuals experiencing food insecurity before the pandemic, including 50,000 children. Now, it feeds about 215,000 people, including 70,000 children – nearly 50 percent of whom reside in Monmouth County.
The organization, which is 87 percent donor-funded, provided 3.3 million more meals to those experiencing food insecurity in Monmouth County in 2020 than it did the year prior, at a cost of $4.7 million, she wrote. It also established a restaurant program at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 that provided stipends to local restaurants to feed those in need. As of March 17, Fulfill had funded nearly $1.3 million to Monmouth County businesses through the program.
The food bank also provided grants to help increase capacity at its 141 pantries and emergency food programs in Monmouth County, according to Guadagno. In 2020, at no cost to others, Fulfill provided food, PPE, tents, heaters, refrigerators, freezers and more to allow emergency feeding programs to reopen and expand their capacities, she wrote. These grants total $1 million and counting.
Last summer, representatives of Ocean County invited Fulfill to apply for CARES Act funding and a Community Development Block Grant to help offset costs of the increased meals it was providing to Ocean County residents during the pandemic. As a result, Fulfill received $355,258 from Ocean County through the pandemic relief funding.
“While talking to Ocean County, Fulfill had similar talks with Monmouth,” Guadagno wrote. “We were told such funding was not available under the CARES Act. In an effort to show how CARES Act funding was, in fact, available, Fulfill sent a copy of the final Ocean County grant award to Commissioner (Sue) Kiley. Sadly, notwithstanding the availability of grants like the Ocean County award, no CARES Act funding was awarded by Monmouth County to Fulfill.”
Guadagno added that, as the need in Monmouth County continues to be high and as officials plan out how it will distribute the next round of federal funding, “Fulfill asks that the food insecure of Monmouth County not be forgotten. We look to the County to follow the lead of Ocean not only to help mitigate the cost of the additional meals provided over the past year by Fulfill, but also to help our underserved communities with food this upcoming year.”
MONMOUTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS RESPOND
In a statement dated March 24, Arnone and Kiley said the county commissioners did not receive Fulfill’s March 17 letter until March 22. The board initially became aware of a letter when contacted by media outlets, which received a copy of the letter via email around 1 p.m. March 17.
“The Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners takes food insecurity very seriously. We have held annual food drives in support of Fulfill and have worked through the County’s Division of Social Services and Monmouth ACTS to assist all of our residents who need food, financial or housing assistance,” they wrote. “We believe that we need to do all that we can to assist our underserved residents and we appreciate the work that Fulfill is doing towards that end. However, we also believe that there needs to be policies and procedures in place when it comes to distributing federal grant dollars.”
The county hired an outside firm to administer the application process for the CARES Act grants and determine which businesses met the criteria, according to the statement. Applications were accepted from Aug. 3 through Dec. 23, 2020. Under Monmouth County’s established guidelines, eligible businesses had to have fewer than 50 employees and make less than $5 million in annual revenue. According to Fulfill’s most recent available tax records, it has 61 employees and saw about $23.5 million in total revenue in 2018.
The Two River Times reached out to representatives of the Monmouth County Commissioners and asked if Fulfill could have received CARES Act funding in any other way since it did not meet the employee or revenue requirements. No responses were received by press time Wednesday. But the commissioner statement makes that point moot, since it said Fulfill never contacted them about grant money.
“After thorough review, we found that Fulfill did not submit an application for the first round of CARES Act grant funding. Not only was there no application, there was no letter or formal request for grant funding ever sent to the Board of County Commissioners for review,” Arnone and Kiley wrote. “Commissioner Director Arnone has personally spoken to the Chair of the Fulfill Board of Trustees and informed her that an application was never filed by Fulfill. We did have other food banks in Monmouth County apply and they were all granted funding.”
They added that the board “welcomes the opportunity to work with Fulfill to evaluate the great work they are doing for our underserved, their financial situation and how we can make both better.”
While Fulfill declined to comment further on the situation, it did tell The Two River Times that it is “pleased that the Monmouth County Commissioners are willing to work with Fulfill to help us feed our neighbors by considering funding food insecurity.”
COMMUNITY REACTION
Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11) issued a statement March 17 in response to Fulfill’s letter to county commissioners. In it, he wrote that he is in “full support” of Fulfill’s request of $725,000 to help offset costs of feeding those experiencing food insecurity in Monmouth County.
“Despite Monmouth County being one of the richest counties in New Jersey, we do have a significantly underserved population, specifically within our black and brown communities which we have seen through a number of studies conducted over this past year,” Gopal wrote March 17.
On March 31 he added, “I am happy that both are working together, and hopefully Monmouth County will be able to dedicate Cares Act funding and support Fulfill. CEO Kim Guadagno and the rest of the staff at Fulfill are doing amazing work and this is the time we need to work together to help our most vulnerable.”
Similarly, Michael Beson, a former Neptune Township mayor, issued a statement March 18 calling on the county to provide the funding requested to Fulfill. Beson is running for election to the county commissioners board this year against incumbent Sue Kiley.
“Ocean County invited Fulfill to apply for funding through the CARES Act, providing $355,258 in funding. In Monmouth County, when Fulfill leadership asked Monmouth County to do the same, Commissioner Kiley maintained that funding could not be granted through the CARES Act,” he wrote. “The decision by Commissioner Kiley is utterly incomprehensible since Fulfill was able to secure such funding from Ocean County.” Beson said.
This article was originally published in the April 1-7, 2021 edition of The Two River Times.
