Community food pantry turns 40

The Sparta Community Food Pantry is celebrating 40 years of service to residents of Sussex County and the surrounding area.

Its mission is to provide nourishment and hope to families and individuals struggling with food insecurity.

Before the food pantry was established in 1985, the community would donate to seven different churches, which distributed food.

Eventually, the churches came together to make the First Presbyterian Church of Sparta the sole recipient of donations.

Today, the pantry is located in the heart of Sparta at 99 Demarest Road.

Valerie Macchio of Sparta is the executive director/board president of the nonprofit organizations as well as co-founder of the Sussex County Hunger Coalition.

More than 100 volunteers help keep the pantry running.

“We segment our volunteers into different working tasks,” Macchio said. “We have drivers who pick up and deliver food, a logistics team, sorters and a produce team.”

The pantry allows those in need to shop for what they want in an area that resembles a grocery store. Macchio spends most of her time there.

Five other board members are considered the core staff.

A calling

Macchio has been volunteering since 2009 and she believes that helping people in need is her calling.

“When my son went to kindergarten, I went to my pastor and told him I don’t know what to do with myself now that I can’t commute to the city for work,” she said.

“He told me if I could volunteer a couple hours a week, I can give you something to do. You ask a busy person to do something, that’s when things get done.”

Macchio began her marketing career in Manhattan in the cosmetics industry, specifically working on consumer insights.

When she moved to New Jersey, the commute became unfeasible and she decided to start a consumer research business in Parsippany.

In December 2019, she closed her business, Cornerstone Marketing. Three months later, the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing.

That pandemic cut the food pantry’s volunteers from more than 100 to half a dozen.

Serving 51 towns

Today, the pantry serves 51 communities in Sussex, Morris and Warren counties.

It is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., then reopens from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays.

The pantry accommodates all people who need food including those with kosher, no-salt, low-salt, low-sugar, gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian diets.

Aside from donations, much of the food is purchased by Macchio and Co.

Instead of throwing perishable food away after the pantry closes on Fridays, Macchio would take it to other pantries open Saturdays so it would not be wasted.

Eventually, she was running into other people doing the same thing.

Hunger Coalition

Five years ago, she teamed up with Christine Parauda of LocalShare to create the Sussex County Hunger Coalition. It is a group of area organizations that work together to provide food where it is needed.

“We all have different talents, we all have different ideas, we all have different focuses, but it all focuses around the same people,” Macchio said. “We all came together and discussed how we can do it better. It was the idea of not duplicating the same efforts.”

In addition to being part of the coalition, the food pantry has been part of the Atlantic Health Systems Unite Us referral platform for the past three years.

A new program that Macchio started late last year is called Go Bags.

The bags include food that needs to be prepared or is ready to be consumed that can last two to three days. The bags also contain information about available resources.

The bags are placed in police stations for use when police find someone who is homeless or in a trauma situation.

Macchio plans to continue the program throughout 2025.