Toni’s Kitchen Celebrates 40 Years of Serving the Community

Supporters, community partners and volunteers of Toni's Kitchen gathered on Saturday, October 1, at the Upper Montclair Women's Club to celebrate 40 years of service to our community. More than 200 turned out to mark the work that Toni's Kitchen has been doing since 1982 to fight food insecurity.

The Passing Notes, Montclair High School's student-run a cappella group, entertained the crowd. CBS News Senior National Correspondent Jim Axelrod spoke about how well Toni's Kitchen works in a world where so many institutions these days seem broken. There was a live auction where guests bid to have the new Toni's Grill food truck cater their special event and another auction to raise funds for the "Growth for Good" project, which will add 5000 square feet of space to Toni's Kitchen to help meet the food need in our community. There was also a silent auction of special gift baskets and experiences from many local businesses.

Toni's Kitchen Director Anne Mernin thanked everyone for their support and spoke to the audience about Toni's Kitchen's goal to end food insecurity in the communities that Toni's Kitchen serves in three to five years.

It was a great night to celebrate the work that Toni's Kitchen has done and to look forward to the work ahead to fight food insecurity right here in our community.