Carpenters assist church in New Jersey build church feeding ministry:
NEW JERSEY: Carpenters lend skills to help keep church feeding ministry alive
From the time he was a kid, Cuban immigrant Manny Ortega had a passion for carpentry. “Jesus was a carpenter, so that always had some kind of meaning to me,” he recalled.
That passion eventually led him to become a council representative in Carpenters Union 155 – and to launch a project to help keep the doors open at a feeding program at St. John’s Episcopal Church in his urban hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Since May, union volunteers have been working to upgrade a staircase in the 1895 portion of the church facility so it will meet local fire codes.
It all started with platters of food left over from union staff meetings in the regional council office. “Basically, most of it just ends up being wasted,” Ortega said.