SALT Foundation Partners With City of Jersey City For Mobile Food Pantries

Roadside Food Pantries in JC Feed The Hungry While Curbing Food Waste - August Dates Coming Up !

Submitted by Marc Adelberg, Sustainable JC Board Member

Humans have utilized salt to extend the life of food for millennia.

So when Claudia Wheeler was debating names for her nonprofit, which distributes would-be wasted groceries to families in need, it was a surprisingly easy choice.

“From way back, salt has been a way to preserve food,” Wheeler told Sustainable JC.  “That’s what SALT (Foundation) does.  I’m here to preserve not only food, but families and communities and individuals as well.”

An idea inspired by a food drive at her Franklin Township church has germinated into a weekly event, with distributions throughout Hudson, Mercer, and Middlesex Counties.

For three years, Wheeler’s SALT Foundation has been picking up expiring food from local Trader Joe’s and Wegmans supermarkets and delivering it to those in need.  In any given week, the organization brings fresh products to food pantries, women’s and homeless shelters, and churches. 

Wheeler, a Navy veteran and schoolteacher, is plenty resourceful; she completes most food pick-ups and drop-offs by herself, with occasional operational support from her husband, David.  But with COVID-19 highlighting the need to give back, Wheeler has received help from friends and additional contributions from volunteers.  SALT soon began to distribute healthy produce, bread, and other food with even more frequency. 

In late March, with the pandemic raging and ravaging livelihoods, the foundation held its first outdoor “Community Love” food pantry in Franklin Township, satisfying CDC guidelines for social distancing.  After a dozen “pop-up drive-thru” food pantries in Somerset, handing out hundreds of bags of food each time, SALT expanded to alleviate food insecurity in Northeast New Jersey. 

Hudson County proved an important destination for Wheeler.

“I reached out to a councilwoman in Jersey City and I said ‘I’m Jersey City-raised and my heart is there. I’d love to bring this to Jersey City,’” Wheeler said. 

(SALT Foundation began partnering with Five Corners restaurant Freetown Road Project on “Community Love” gatherings in January, so Wheeler was familiar with service in the City.  Her brother, Claude Lewis, opened Freetown Road Project in 2019 – a few months after winning an episode of “Chopped” on Food Network.  Lewis was formerly executive chef at Porta downtown.)

Late in the spring, Jersey City Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey facilitated a connection between SALT Foundation and Healthier JC.  It didn’t take long to secure the first pop-up pantry, which occurred on Route 440 on June 7.  And with lines of cars stretching back onto Route 9 that day, it was evident SALT Foundation was filling a need.

SALT and Healthier JC have been teaming up every other Sunday since.  The organizations plan to continue that pattern through at least the end of August, with the next pop-ups occurring August 16 and August 30 - location is at 575 Route 440.

“As a partner of #HealthierJC, we salute the efforts of the SALT Foundation as we expand our efforts in providing healthy food access to people in need during the COVID-19 crisis,” said Stacey Flanagan, Director of Health and Human Services for Jersey City.  “Claudia and her team have been amazing partners as they feed nearly 200 families every mobile pantry day.”

Wheeler is heartened by the large number of people SALT Foundation is servicing with its distributions – individuals from all walks of life.

“You could be driving a BMW.  I don’t know what’s going on in your home.  We’re all going through this together,” Wheeler stated.  “I don’t require any type of identification,” she added.  “Just the smile through your eyes – through the mask, because we’re being safe – that’s all that I need.”

The duty to teach drives Wheeler, whether endowing her young students with knowledge or stressing the benefits of giving back through community service.  (Among her favorite passages from the bible?  Galatians 5:13 – “Serve one another in love.”) 

 “Food is what unites cultures and communities,” Wheeler avowed.  “I want SALT to act as the hinge that keeps us together especially during these challenging times.”

@HealthierJC @sustainable @jerseycity @sustainablejc #HealthierJC #foodrescue @StaceyLFlanaga1 @KelleherMKJC @SaltNJ

Thank You All - Fundraising Campaign Success for The Sharing Place Food Pantry !

Fundraising Campaign Success for The Sharing Place Food Pantry !

Submitted by Marc Adelberg, SJC Core Team Member

Dear Donors and Community Partners,

Sustainable Jersey City (SJC) is thrilled to announce that we have raised $5,448 for The Sharing Place food pantry via the ioby crowdfunding platform, reaching and exceeding our goal of $5,000.  We could not have done so without your assistance. (Campaign site here.)  

This influx of money means that the food pantry can alleviate expanded food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis.  In a time of true need for so many, your generous donations and community support have ensured that The Sharing Place can continue to stand by its creed: to not turn anyone away.  The funds will allow The Sharing Place to procure healthy food— in April, 195 families received a total of 14,000 pounds of food, including fresh meat and produce—for the next three months of distributions.

We at SJC were overwhelmed by the immediate response to our call to action.  It is certainly fulfilling to contribute to a vital cause; it is even more so in this unprecedented situation.  We are grateful for your selfless acts of support.  Helping us accomplish our goal guarantees that The Sharing Place can fulfill its mission, even during the pandemic: lifting the burden of hunger for Jersey City and Hudson County residents. 

Thank You Note From The Sharing Place ~

Sincerely,

Marc Adelberg

Core Team Member

Sustainable Jersey City

Crowdsourced Data Mapping Tool Reveals Elevated Flu-Like Symptoms Across US Geographies, Public Participation Can Help Track The Spread Of COVID-19

Kinsa Smart Thermometer Device Records Anonymous Fever Data In Real Time, Download The Free App - Jersey City, NJ

Submitted by Debra Italiano, Founder & Chair Sustainable JC

The award winning, US public health tech company Kinsa Health has been around for awhile, providing about a million households (2 million consumers) with useful feedback about their health symptoms, through a smart thermometer device.  The device can be used standalone or with a connected free app you can download which provides feedback   

In partnership with Oregon State University, Kinsa Health now publishes a US Health Weather Map which provides a visualization of seasonal illness associated with influenza symptoms, typified by increased fever symptoms. The map has been ahead of the CDC in projecting flu rates each season for years and is used by public health officials to prepare each season.

The data visualized on the Kinsa Health Weather US map shown is the product of the size of the network of Kinsa’s Smart Thermometers and the connected mobile applications.

In these times of COVID-19, given that heightened fever is a primary symptom, this tracks to potential for the virus and is serving as an AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM for public health officials, municipal decisionmakers and first responders seeking information about where the COVID-19 virus might be spreading based on real time reported public health data. 

While widespread testing in the US is still not available for COVID-19 and must be managed judiciously due to supply issues, this complementary data tool can activate quick response measures and act as a very worthwhile surveillance reporting device that people fighting to contain the spread of COVID-19 desperately need. Dr. Peter J. Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said: “If this tells you where there are new major clusters of fever, it tells you where to swoop in with your test kits.”

As anticipation of opening up the economy prompts planning about the need for an extensive infrastructure of testing, containment and surveillance measures, and given this will be quite the feat to accomplish, (time, money, complexity), this very low cost form of public health surveillance (anonymous) can be deployed quickly and easily and can save lives.  Here is how the Kinsa FLUency program is operating in a Michigan school district   Parents active in the JC school district please suggest that we use the device and app to the JC School Board ! 

The data visualized on the Kinsa Health Weather US map shown is the product of the size of the network of Kinsa’s Smart Thermometers and the connected mobile applications.  The map has been ahead of the CDC in projecting flu rates each season for years and is used by public health officials to prepare each season. The grayed areas on the map, mostly rural areas, are obviously not connected in the aggregated database yet.  As more crowdsourced data comes into the database, the map will change in real time and the projections for each zip code will change. 

Kinsa Health is careful to state that the data they are providing is COMPLIMENTARY, but clearly this very important elevated fever data is quite valuable to note for public health officials and is being used in NYC right now.  For example, the NYTs story broke last month when Kinsa offered what they noticed as a Brooklyn spike in fever readings after winter flu season had begun to downturn.  The unusual readings were used as an alert that something unusual was happening, put the health department on notice, enabling them to mobilize an informed effort to contain a possible infectious cluster from spreading.

SJC is a fan of crowdsourced data programs and have spearheaded a couple of Citizen Science projects where the public was able to jump in and to create a data repository that becomes a helpful decision making tool for good things to happen.  The Kinsa Smart Thermometer is a brilliant example of how we can all assist with crowdsourcing data that will be helpful to officials trying to stay ahead of the curve of this deadly disease. Other countries are now on a regimen of taking their temperature twice daily, it may be time for US citizens to begin to do the same.

The cost is $35.99 on the Kinsa website and they have a BUY 1 DONATE 1 Kinsa Health Commitment program, which gets more thermometers distributed to under-resourced schools, improving their ability to track and contain the pandemic.  Quick video about using the app here.

Community Solar Projects Approved As NJ Seeks to Reduce Carbon In Electricity Generation

Hartz Mountain Group Community Solar Project Approved For Jersey City

Submitted by: Kevin Englert, Sustainable Jersey City Member

Image Caption: In 2019, the top five largest sources of electricity generation in NJ: Natural Gas-Fired 40,589 thousand MWh (53.8%), Nuclear 26,637 thousand MWh (34.9%), Solar photovoltaic 3,419 thousand MWh (4.5%), Non-solar & Non-hydro renewables 2,044 thousand MWh (2.7%), Coal 1,042 thousand MWh (1.4%).

Efforts to decarbonize electricity generation in NJ continue with the approval of 45 community solar projects throughout the state, including 1 in Jersey City. On Dec. 20, 2019, the NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved these pilot projects under the Community Solar Pilot Program (CSP). All the approved projects have proposed, and must verify, that at least 51% of a project’s total solar capacity will be subscribed by low and moderate income (LMI) households. The program should allow subscribed NJ residents to simultaneously lower their carbon footprint and their electricity bills. 

Residents that live within a project’s set geographic limit, the municipality, county, or utility service area of the project, may subscribe to receive electricity generated by the project’s solar installation. (i.e. subscribers do not have to live near the installation). Subscription changes a customer’s relationship with their electric utility. Instead of paying the utility to both generate and deliver their electricity, a subscriber separately pays the project to generate renewable electricity and the utility to deliver the electricity. Although the subscriber is paying two bills, they receive a credit on the utility bill for the renewable generation, which saves them money overall, potentially up to 10% savings.

Contrary to some claims otherwise, electricity generated by NJ energy providers continues to be very fossil fuel intensive. As reported by the US Department of Energy, 54% of all electricity used in NJ in 2019 was generated by burning natural gas, a fossil fuel. Not only does burning natural gas emit carbon dioxide, but the supply chain of natural gas is unreliable, leaking natural gas, and its main ingredient, methane, into the atmosphere. Recent studies estimate that 2.3% of gross natural gas volume escapes the supply chain during fracking, processing, or transmission. The global warming impact of this leaked atmospheric methane is roughly 84x more potent than that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year span.

As natural gas has replaced coal in NJ electricity generation, at best, we have been running in place from a carbon emissions standpoint. Reversing global warming requires the drastic decrease of carbon emissions, from any greenhouse gas, and a corresponding increase of renewable energy. In 2019, only 7.2% of electricity generated came from renewable sources, mainly solar and wind. Nuclear energy provided 34.9% of electricity, which, when combined with natural gas electricity generation (53.8%) means that 88.7% of all NJ electricity comes from non-renewable sources. 

In its first year, the community solar program will create a total of 75 new megawatts of renewable electricity capacity, offsetting approximately 29 tons of carbon emissions per year, equivalent to the annual output of 11 cars. Per the BPU order, construction on all projects should begin within 6-months of the approval (by June 20, 2020), and projects should be fully operational within 12-months of the approval (by Dec. 20, 2020). Project applications were scored and approved based on a series of weighted criteria including, in order from high to low weight: LMI subscribers, environmental siting, savings and flexible subscriber terms, community and environmental justice, residential subscribers, other (jobs created, co-benefits such as grid storage), and geographic limits (municipality, county, or utility service area). 

Note: The one approved project located in Jersey City was awarded to the Hartz Mountain Group. Sustainable Jersey City was unable to reach Hartz Mountain Group for comment. 

See previous reporting on the Community Solar Pilot Project here.

Get To Know Our SJC Green Drinks +TREES Sponsors – March 5th @ Atlas Gastropub, 6-9pm

We wanted to write a short post with some reference links about our sponsors, so you get to know more about the terrific work they are doing to make Jersey City greener and more resilient.  Some of their work is close to the ground with building projects they are working on locally and some of their work expands to statewide initiatives and development projects in other countries.

The Lively, developed by LMC and located at 321 Warren St in Jersey City, is an 18 story, 180-apartment home community inspired by a love of art and design. This boutique apartment community features refined residences, a dynamic 14,500 square foot multi-arts center for a local non-profit organization, and an unbeatable location in the heart of downtown Jersey City's vibrant Powerhouse Arts District. The building earned the National Green Building Standards (NGBS) Silver green certification for the use of sustainable material, systems, and on-going commitment to sustainability. The Lively is also the first project in the State’s history to electively install a permanent storm water retention system beneath the public right-a-away, which benefits the building and the surrounding community. Furthermore, the Lively includes the following sustainable features: condensing high efficiency gas boiler servicing the entire building, central high efficiency heating system for all common areas, LED high-efficiency lighting, high-efficiency  appliances, intelligent heating system at exterior pool, recyclable insulation, high-efficiency water closets, faucets, and showers, prefinished exterior materials, and intelligent utilities tunneling. LMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lennar Corporation, is a multifamily real estate development and operating company with diverse portfolio of institutional quality multifamily rental communities across the U.S. Learn more about LMC at www.LiveLMC.com and the Lively at www.theLivelyapartments.com.

JMA Jorge Mastropietro Atelier is both an architectural studio and development company with offices in Hoboken and Buenos Aires Argentina. He has completed a number of JC projects with advanced energy efficiency, materials re-use and green infrastructure elements as the main of his structural designs.  JMA considers every project, big or small, as an opportunity to bring momentum and awareness to the Green Building Movement, and as a step further towards a more ecofriendly society.

Their project at 345 Central Avenue in Jersey City skillfully complemented a 1-story historic building with a 3-story sustainable design structure which integrated natural materials, strategic placement of windows and openings to allow cross ventilation and natural light to permeate all levels, bringing the lower supermarket level and the food growing roof, which now services a business operation and the consumers of the site, into a closed loop system.  They took great pains to conserve additional energy at each level of the building system, including incorporating motion sensors along the common spaces which will greatly reduce wasted energy overtime. The project took maximum advantage of several sustainability aspects achieving JMA’s overall performance goal for the project.   More about the JMA philosophy and approach here

345 Central Avenue

We’re very excited about this upcoming event and the opportunity to bring professionals from all walks, neighbors and artists together.  Sustainability is a cultural conversation and for that to take flight, folks need to meet each other and start talking about What Sustains Us?  Join us on Wednesday evening Dec 4th downtown at LITM, 6-9pm, for some relaxed conversation -  let’s get to know one another 😊

@thelivelyapts  @jorgemastropietroatelier  #SustainableJC  #SJCGreenDrinks+TREES  #Sustainable  #JersecyCity @atlaspublichouse @atlashousenj