Open Door...

"In order to affirm the God-given dignity of all individuals, Open Door seeks to aid all the greater Freehold area residents in need and to encourage them to become self-sufficient" said by Marilyn Rusbarsky one of the many volunteers at Open Door. That quote is the mission for Open Door. Open Door is an non-profit social serve organization. Open Door is located in Freehold Borough on 39 Throckmorton Street P.O. Box 1073. To get in touch with any of the volunteer you could call 732-780-1089. The Open Door hours are Monday thru Friday from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Open Door started in 1970 as a faculty to give out clothing. It then changed in 1987 to a Faculty to provide food for the needy. Open Door serves the community around them such as Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Marlboro, Millstone and Colts Neck.

Open Door is a non-profit interfaith agency that provides emergency food, emergency funding, mentoring and scholarships. The workers are all volunteers. To be a volunteer means to perform or offer to perform a service of ones own free will. It is administered by a sixteen members volunteer Board of Trustees, two part-time salaried employees and over 150 volunteers. When I visited the faculty I interviewed Marilyn Rusbarsky. Marilyn position at the faculty is simply stated as a worker who volunteered her time to make others lives better. She has been working there for over 10 years now. She said each year the number of families that need help is growing. In an average of a month about 350 families are helped. That means about 1000 people per month. Marilyn said they have five programs within the building. The five programs are a Food Pantry Program, a Lunch Program, an Emergency Funding/Advocacy Program, an After School Program and a Scholarship Program.

Each program has its own way to serve the community. The Food Pantry program provides emergency packaged foods equivalent to a three day supply to qualified individuals and families once a month. The lunch program which consists of sandwiches or hot nutritious meals that are served every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday each week from 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm in St. Peter's Episcopal Church Parish Hall at 33 Throckmorton Street. This Church is located next to the Open Door building. The Emergency Funding/ Advocacy Program is to help people in need with their finances. It provides qualified individuals with emergency financial assistance to prevent eviction or utility shutoff, to provide temporary housing and to help pay for medical needs such as prescriptions. There are many people who are scared to ask their family members for money or help, so they come here. The After school Programs are for children to come to get help in school. Whether they are teaching to use the computers or homework questions. Many children come here to use the computers because their families can not afford to buy one. The final Program they offer is the Scholarship Program. To qualify for these scholarships you have to pass the after school program they have. It is to help needy families, who want their children to go to college to get an education to be successful in life.

Open door faculty is a special non profit organizations. It has been running for the past 35 years. The faculty is a small building located in freehold borough. When you walk into the building there are two front desk with people to help you. They are very friendly and willing to help you. To the left of the front desk there is a table with all different kinds of bread and food for the people. By the windows there are different types of books for all ages. Children are always coming in and out of the faculty to get books to read. The faculty was very clean and it looks like they take care of it. There are several rooms such as the dinning hall, pantry packing station, desert table and check in (front desk).

Open door I feel is a very successful organization. In my High School I remember working with Open Door to help people during Christmas time. Open Door give us names of families and what their children wanted for Christmas. We went out and brought the presents they asked for. As a surprise for the families the day before Christmas we went to their house and brought them the presents. We had somebody dress up as Santa Clause to make it seem realistic. I will remember the look on those children faces for years. They were so happy and excited to receive the presents. The parents would thank us a hundred times because we showed we cared about them. I feel everybody should take the time to get invited in our community. A small present or just the visit to their home, made their Christmas. We do not realize what we have until we see what some do not. We take a lot for granted and should be thankful for everything. I feel this is on of the best faculty in our community. They really know how to help make people feel like they have a place on this earth.

Open door clients come to the faculty for many different reasons. The clients are the working poor as well as other low income people such as the elderly, people with disabilities, unemployed, local welfare and persons receiving TANF. TNAF stand for Temporary Aid to Needy Families. Children are 42% of the client base they serve. Assistance is provided to people in need regardless of race, creed, color and nationality. On a personal level people are there to help with their lives. They are there to help in any aspect to make them better off. The facility is a great location in the middle Freehold. Open Door is open and willing to help anybody in need. They are also willing to take any suggestion to make their facility a better place. They are willing to have more people come into volunteer to help our communities out. A way to help is by sending money donation or food and other products to the faculty. Some types of food they ask for are vegetables soups, pastas, cereal, can foods, bread, salt & pepper and rice.Anything that can be sent out without being damage can help. For thanksgvings my family and I brought food for Open Door. We felt it was a good opportunity to get involved in our community.