Oakland Mother's Club Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive A Success Thanks to Many Dedicated Volunteers

On November 19, 2022, the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts helped the Mother's Club sort the food & check expiration dates and IHHS students from the Interact Club helped customize boxes and bags of food for over 70 Oakland families in need (20+ more than last year). This year, the Mother's Club also arranged to have individual pre-made Thanksgiving meals from the Market Basket delivered to 15 seniors in town and both Rotary Club and Mother's Club members coordinated food pick-ups and deliveries.


Many Oakland residents donated food, paper goods, personal products, turkeys and money. The Bergen County Commissioners donated turkeys; the Market Basket donated individual pre-made meals for seniors; ShopRite gave the Mother's Club a discount on food purchases; and Stop & Shop offered to donate turkeys as well.

As usual, the Oakland DPW collected food from all the schools, library, police station and Ponds Church (who stored frozen turkeys donated by Oakland residents). The DPW dropped all the donations and numerous tables off at the Copper Tree Mall (who let us use their open space to sort and pack the food).

Mother's Club president, Kathleen O’Neal, orchestrated the entire effort and numerous Mother's Club members helped coordinate various tasks.Once again, the Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive was a huge success. In addition to generous donations from Oakland residents, numerous organizations rallied behind this important initiative - the Oakland DPW, Rotary Club, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, IHHS Interact Club, Ponds Church, Copper Tree Mall, Market Basket, Shop Rite, Stop & Shop, the Bergen County Commissioners (Commissioner Tracey Zur and her team) and, of course, the Oakland Mother's Club!! In addition, Oakland Resident, Mike Rose, made a substantial monetary donation which enabled the Mother's Club to purchase extra food to supplement what was collected.

We are so blessed to live in an awesome community with such generous and kind people. Sincere thanks to ALL who contributed to this effort. What great teamwork, what a great town... Oakland, NJ!