Current Collection Drives
Sussex Rural Electric Food Drive
(Year-Round)
The Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative Food Drive is a long running program that has donated thousands of pounds of food to our Sussex County community food banks.
If anyone is in need of food for themselves, their family, or their pets, they can stop by the Division of Social Services at 83 Spring Street, Newton, NJ, Monday through Friday between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm.
The shelves in the Food Locker of the Division of Social Services, as well as other food pantries throughout the county, are often bate. Items needed are those required to feed a family: shelf-stable milk, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, crackers, meals in a can, soup, tuna, or other proteins in a can. Personal items are always in need. Since the Food Locker is one of the only food pantries to stock pet food, donations of pet food are very much appreciated.
We collect donations in our office's lobby all year-round. If you will be coming into our office to pay your bill or ask a question about your account, or if you're just in the area, please consider making a donation if you can. All donations are sincerely appreciated. We usually end up donating about 60 pounds of food for month, and would appreciate your help to push that number even higher!
Past Collection Drives
Father John's Animal House Collection Drive
After hosting several successful donation drives to support underprivileged members of our community, SREC shifted focus to helping another group that needs support, animals without homes. From February 6 - March 5, 2020, Sussex Rural Electric hosted a supply drive to benefit Father John's Animal House in Lafayette. We partnered with iHeart Media to make this possible. We hosted Steve Allan and the 102.3 WSUS team at our office to film episodes of the Pet of the Week, featuring animals from Father John's, to start and end this collection drive.
At the end of the month-long collection, it was clear that our members pulled off something amazing! Overall, we collected over 330 pounds of pet food, along with a plethora of other items such as pet toys and other supplies, office supplies, and cleaning items. We are proud to have also presented the good people from Father John's with a check for $1,000 from our community action fund. This comes from a fund of capital credits that have remained unclaimed by former members. Since we cannot reach these members and we are a not-for-profit organization, we choose to reinvest this money back into the community when we can.
We are proud to support great, local organizations like Father John's Animal House. If you are looking to add a new furry friend to your family, please consider adopting an animal from a shelter instead of buying one from a pet store. You can find more information about Father John's Animal House at https://www.fatherjohns.org/.
Holiday Toy Drive
In 2018 and 2019, Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative has hosted a toy drive on behalf of Family Promise of Sussex County. We collected donations of toys and new or lightly used winter clothing for the children and families of our communities who have or will experience homelessness. Families now comprise as high as 35% of the homeless population. 1 in 5 homeless people is a child.
During these drives, we have called on our membership to help make these children's holidays a little brighter, and they answered that call! After the collection ended, we had over 80 individual gifts that Family Promise could give to a child in need. We rewarded our members' kind donations with a free four-pack of LED light bulbs.
Donations were distributed as gifts to local children at Family Promise of Sussex County's annual client Christmas party.
Stand Down for Veterans Clothing Drive
In May of 2019, we hosted a supply drive to collect clothing items for our county's population of homeless veterans. The new or lightly used clothing, as well as hygiene and toiletry items, donated by our members was distributed to these veterans at Pass It Along's Stand Down for Veterans event. This event welcomes homeless military veterans and in addition to clothing offers them free haircuts, warm meals, access to resources such as medical, legal, and mental health consultation.
At the end of the collection, our members had donated over 600 pounds of clothing and hygiene items to be given to veterans at this event! We are incredibly proud to have such generous members. As a reward for our members' kindness, we gave away a free four-pack of LED light bulbs for every donation.