Westfield News Archives - Luxury Homes/Top Towns

Westfield Clothing Drive for AGAPE Community Kitchen

May 8, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Expect to see cold, wet weather this weekend. It might not be the best time for yard work or projects to boost your curb appeal. But, forget the binge-watching for a moment. Instead, tackle some spring cleaning chores by clearing out your closet. Then, bag up your stuff for our local Presbyterian Church’s Westfield Clothing Drive. Money raised from the sale of donated items benefits the church’s AGAPE Community Kitchen program.

Do some spring cleaning at your house this weekend and help those less fortunate by donating your gently used clothing, linens, stuffed animals, and accessories to the Westfield Clothing Drive for AGAPE Community Kitchen on May 17th-20th, 2020.

What: Westfield Clothing Drive
Where: Presbyterian Church in Westfield (140 Mountain Ave)
When: May 17th to 21st
Contact: Janet Smith, Event Coordinator via email

Westfield Clothing Drive

Towards the end of March, the Presbyterian Church in Westfield followed the same protocols put in place for restaurants. They suspended their weekly Wednesday dinner program due to public health concerns from COVID-19. As of the writing of this post, the kitchen remains closed. However, when officials OK their reopening, they plan on firing up the grill and serving hot meals again.

To get ready for their reopening, they are hosting a clothing drive. What do clothes have to do with feeding hungry people? The money raised from the sale of your donated items helps the kitchen purchase food to feed these hungry people. All you have to do is bag up your gently used clothing, bedding, pillows, towels, shoes, curtains, ties, belts, and even stuffed animals that your children outgrew or don’t use anymore. Bring these bags down to the church between March 17th and 21st. Toss them into the white van with the church’s name on the side located in the parking lot. Volunteers handle the rest. Practice safe social distancing while helping your less fortunate neighbors.

AGAPE Community Kitchen

The Presbyterian Church in Westfield’s AGAPE program actually takes place in nearby Elizabeth. Volunteers meet every Wednesday afternoon in the Westfield church’s parking at 3:15 pm. The church’s van shuttles these wonderful volunteers to the kitchen in Elizabeth where they prepare a delicious hot meal for dinner guests. They end up back in Westfield around 7:30 pm every week. If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact the church. Students in grades 6-12 may also sign up to volunteer.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

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Westfield Farmers Market Opens With Curbside Pickup

May 1, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Millions of New Jersey residents continue to follow Governor Murphy’s Stay at Home order. Currently, only essential businesses remain open, with restrictions. Usually, June marks the start of our local farmer’s market season. However, beginning tomorrow (May 2nd), the Westfield Farmers Market opens with curbside pickup available.

Westfield Farmers Market

Earlier this week, the Greater Westfield Area Chamber of Commerce announced that the Westfield Farmers Market would open up early this year. In keeping with social distancing and the CDC’s guidelines on responsible practices, patrons of the market can now place an order from vendors online. Pay for it when you order. Choose a time for pickup (between 10 am and 12 pm). Then, show up to the Westfield Train Station at your designated time.

When you pick up your order, the market staff places your purchased items in the trunk and you go back home with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, baked goods, and more for your family’s dinner table. Basically, no contact shopping. It’s just like shopping on Amazon. But, instead of a huge corporation getting your money, you support local farmers and merchants directly.

Westfield Farmers Market Hours

Right now, orders must be placed online by Thursday evening for the following Saturday’s pickup. They plan on continuing the virtual market/curbside pickup schedule every Saturday until the regular market starts up. Organizers ask that you be patient as they work out the kinks that may arise from this new arrangement.

As long as Westfield residents continue to obey the governor’s stay at home orders, hopefully, the market starts up with business as usual in June. For the latest local COVID-19 information, please visit the City of Westfield’s Coronavirus Information Center.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

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Westfield Conservation Center Opens…With Limitations

April 17, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Are you practicing good social distancing techniques? With many of us spending more and more time at home lately, we seem to find the time now to tackle those projects around that house that we put off for so long. Maybe you attempted to increase your curb appeal. Or you used your time to do some spring cleaning. In either case, your trash cans might be overflowing at the moment. If you need to bring trash to the dump, you’re in luck. The Westfield Conservation Center recently opened back up to the public. However, for now, they only accept trash on Thursdays and Fridays.

Have you been using your free time to tackle your spring cleaning or completing home improvement projects? You can now bring your trash from these efforts to the Westfield Conservation Center.

Westfield Conservation Center

The City recognizes a need for the conservation center to open back up. But they also want to keep their workers safe by practicing social distancing. To do so, they must stagger their shifts. Yesterday (April 16th), the center opened its doors back up to the public. But people found themselves waiting in long lines to get in. A few hours in, the City suspended their online sales of dumping permits. About an hour before closing, cars thinned out enough to allow online sales to continue.

For the foreseeable future, Westfield Conservation Center hours for residential dumping are restricted to Thursdays and Fridays from 9 am to 2:30 pm. They temporarily put food waste, plastic toys, household bulk waste, and mattress drop-offs on hold. But all other recycling can still be dropped off for free.

How to Get a Permit

With limited staffing in place, you may only buy your annual permit online. It costs $60 for the year. Be aware, however. In times of high volume at the center, the City may temporarily suspend sales of permits online. Just check back later in the day to see if they become available again (like they did on opening day). Once you pay for and print your permit, make sure you keep your paper copy with you to show the staff at the center. For a complete list of acceptable recyclable materials for free drop-off, please visit the Westfield Conservation Center’s website here.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

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Westfield Food Pantry Drop-Off at YMCA

April 10, 2020 by Scott Gleason

Did you spot any rainbows while out on your daily walk in Westfield lately? It may seem like a little thing, but they certainly raise your spirits when you see them. With unemployment filings in the multi-millions over the last few weeks, we see more and more people struggling just to put food on the table. One way you can help alleviate this strain for those in need is to donate food and other essentials to the Westfield Food Pantry. The Westfield Area YMCA offers a convenient drop-off location for anyone able to help during the pandemic.

The Westfield Area Y continues to offer an easy drop-off location for any food or personal care item donations to the Westfield Food Pantry.

Westfield Food Pantry Drop-Off

The Westfield Area Y always accepted donations for the Westfield Food Pantry. They continue to do so even though they temporarily shut their doors to the public. The Y set up donation drop-off bins in their front vestibule. You may drop off your non-perishable food and personal care items any time between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday. Westfield Police pick up all donations from these bins regularly and take them to the food pantry themselves.

What They Need

canned goods (soup, beef stew, ravioli, spaghettios, fruit, veggies)
dry pasta
peanut butter
jelly
cereal
personal care items (shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, travel-sized items)

Helping the Westfield Area Y

As you can imagine, shutting their doors has financially hurt our local YMCA. To help reduce the impact this has caused, the Westfield Area Y set up their YMCA Operations Recovery Fund. If you can, please donate today. This will help them continue to provide service to the community when they are able to open back up after we flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic and get back to something resembling a normal life afterward. We will get there as long as we work together right now.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

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Support Mobile Meals of Westfield, Buy an Acme Bag in January

January 24, 2020 by Scott Gleason

I love that our Westfield community believes in helping those less fortunate. (Who donated items for the MLK Service Day Toiletry Kits earlier this week?) As some of us age, mobility becomes a factor. Doing regular chores like grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking can be a little more difficult. Sometimes, money becomes a problem as well. Mobile Meals of Westfield partnered up with Acme’s Give Where It Counts this month. Buy a bag. Help a Human.

Mobile Meals of Westfield

For the last 50 years, Mobile Meals of Westfield has been providing meals to approximately 65 people five days a week in the Westfield area. They serve people in Cranford, Fanwood, Clark, Scotch Plains, Mountainside, and Harwood. And they do this without any public funding whatsoever. They depend on private donations and volunteers.

How You Can Help

It’s very simple. Shop at Clark Acme on Raritan anytime before the end of business on January 31st. Go to Customer Service. Look for the Mobile Meals sign located above the reusable bag rack. Pick up two or three bags. Pay for them along with your groceries at checkout. For each $3 bag purchased, $1 goes to help Westfield’s Mobile Meals program. That’s it.

Help those in need in our community. And as a bonus, you help the environment by reducing the amount of plastic bags that end up in local landfills. It’s a win-win for everybody.

Acme Give Back Where It Counts Program

In August of last year, Acme started its Give Back Where It Counts program. Whenever a customer purchases a reusable bag, $1 gets donated to the local non-profit of the customer’s choice. In the short five and a half months since the program started, more than $24,000 went to over 750 non-profit organizations in the Westfield area. Over 200 of those who received donations were hunger relief organizations. Imagine what good your donation could do for the environment as well as your neighbors. Making our world better one bag at a time.

Scott Gleason, CRS at RE/MAX Select, Luxury Homes

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