Positive NRG donation drives Mercer Street Friends Food Bank collections
The no brainer.
Ask any person involved in making decisions about business or life and nothing sounds as wonderful as the decision made without contemplation.
When one stays as busy as Jennifer Brunelle, director of Positive-NRG, the philanthropy program for Princeton-based NRG Energy, an occasional no brainer allows time for the next big community outreach endeavor.
Mercer Street Friends honored recently NRG for continued volunteer support and a special gift that energized a Mercer Street Friends Food Bank operation.
Mind you, the Food Bank has an unmatched 30-year history for food distribution which includes a collection of thousands of pounds of salvageable food from local grocery retailers.
That food gets distributed to a network of food banks, meal sites and food outreach programs like Send Hunger Packing which provides school kids from low-income families with weekend meal packs.
Mercer Street Friends Food Bank operated a salvageable food operation with just one truck which meant many potential support items ended up in landfills.
Put on your NRG thinking cap and tell me you can see the no brainer solution, something wonderfully obvious, so stupendously simplistic that no corporate honcho could resist.
Jennifer Brunelle, please. But let’s work backward.
“It was an easy decision to make,” Brunelle said after she accepted a Mercer Street Friends award for NRG as a key corporate sponsor for a food bank operation that distributes almost three million pounds of food annually.
Brunelle noted conversations with Food Bank Executive Director Phyllis Stoolmacher underscored the amount of salvageable food her organization could claim.
“But Mercer Street Friends had just one truck. So, the solution afforded NRG the opportunity to purchase two trucks,” Brunelle explained.
Sorry, if you were expecting some Thomas Dolby “She Blinded Me With Science” moment.
Stoolmacher, recognized for a 30-year career with Mercer Street Friends, with most time devoted to a thriving food bank which reaches 100 food distributors and 30,000 patrons offered a funny insight regarding the three-truck operation.
“We have a fleet (of trucks). You don’t know how wonderful it feels to say that we have a fleet,” she joked.
The altruistic feeling about this positive NRG effort finds origination in Brunelle’s heart.
Her post award acceptance interview exhibited a variety of emotion and ideas that showcased the love she holds for her work and the welfare of people.
NRG supports nonprofit organizations, community programs and initiatives consistent with four pillars: education, human welfare, environment, and health and wellness.
“Food insecurity means a lot to NRG. It’s not just a matter of having access to canned goods or dry goods. People need nutritious foods,” Brunelle said.
“Children who are growing, minds that need to be nurtured, young people need foods that are fresh. So, when Phyllis explained there’s a lot of fresh food out there but it’s going to waste .... ”
Brunelle experienced passion overload as synapses snapped to attention.
“All you need is a truck and you can get more food. And you can reach more people. And you’re getting them fresh food?” Brunelle gushed.”
“Okay, sign NRG up. A no brainer.”
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Reach him at laparker@trentonian.com. Follow him on Twitter@ laparker6