Deacons

A room within St. Agnes Episcopal Church is stocked with canned soups, meats, fruits, and vegetables alongside cereals, pasta and pet food. It is the church's newly expanded food pantry and is open to anyone in need.

The church has always collected and distributed food for the needy, but several weeks ago they took it a step further and officially opened a food bank.

The Rev. Diane Riley, a deacon in the Diocese of Newark as well as director for advocacy of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, is quoted in this article in The Star-Ledger.

The rich really did get richer in New Jersey over the past 10 years, and the gulf between the wealthiest and poorest residents is the widest it’s been since the Great Depression, a new study has found.

The morning of Saturday, June 2, 2012, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark welcomed three individuals to the transitional diaconate when the Rt. Rev. Mark M. Beckwith ordained the Rev. Rodrigo Perez y Vega Caicedo, the Rev. Diana Wilcox and the Rev. Keun-Joo Christine Pae at Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral in Newark.

Diane Riley and Evelyn Ibarra of The Community Food Bank of New Jersey talk about walking in the shoes of the hungry through the food stamp challenge:

Diane Riley spends her days advocating for hungry people, recognizing that she could be in their place were she born 25 years later.

"I grew up in a very blue-collar home, and I know that today we would be one of the people going to food pantries," said Riley, advocacy director for the Community FoodBank in Hillside, New Jersey, and a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. "We were able to make ends meet, own a small home. We never went hungry. We had health care. That would not be the case today."